Musicians and industry folk discussed how to combat ticket touts in Parliament this morning

You Me At Six frontman Josh Franceschi and a bunch of other music industry folk are currently discussing how to combat ticket touting in Parliament.

The review comes following a hugely successful petition was presented to the Government, asking them to re-evaluate the actions of both individual ticket touts and larger ticketing companies, some of whom have been found to supply tickets direct to resellers.

Arctic Monkeys were approached by one such company, asking them to offer up a portion of their tickets direct to resale sites - the band declined.

Arctic Monkeys have been approached by a big resale site, asking for tickets in exchange for share of profit. They refused. #selectcommittee
— Mark Savage (@mrdiscopop) November 15, 2016

Last month, Franceschi took to Dr Martens’ Carnaby Street store in London to personally sell ticket to fans, as a way to dodge touting of their upcoming #SFSTOUR16 show at Dingwalls in Camden.

Follow industry publication Music Week for up-to-date reporting from the committee - we’ll update this story throughout the debate.

Arctic Monkeys' manager tells MPs the number of tickets sold directly to fans is "far smaller than it should be". #selectcommittee #tickets
— Mark Savage (@mrdiscopop) November 15, 2016

Guest speaker @youmeatsix singer Josh Franceschi: "The main losers are the fans, I don't want to drive them away@ #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

MMF chief executive Annabella Coldrick: "It's a very murky market and we'd like to shine a light on it." #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Franceschi: "It's about the next generation of musicians, we have a responsibility to them to change things" #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Franceschi: "Money's been taken out of the industry and put into the hands of people who are only concerned with lining their own pockets"
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Update: Andrew Bingham MP, Ticketmaster’s chairman Chris Edmonds and Paul Peak from secondary sales site StubHub have offered an alternate stance.

Chris Edmonds, chairman, Ticketmaster: "Wherever demand far exceeds supply it creates frustration and disappointment" #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Andrew Bingham MP: "As legislators we don't want to send the industry backwards. I'm unsure banning bots will solve it." #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Paul Peak, StubHub: "We're under no legal obligation to police our site" #secondaryticketing
— Music Week (@MusicWeek) November 15, 2016

Update: The discussion has now come to a close.

Very little appears to have been solves. Ticketmaster chairman Chris Edmonds is quoted as stating that the company “would never move tickets from primary to secondary on our site.” It’s worth noting that Ticketmaster own both Get Me In and Seatwave - two of the largest ticket re-selling companies - and receive a cut of any tickets sold on any of the three sites.

You can re-watch the debate in full here.

Tags: News