Press Release
Click to Download (PDF)
– Adam Tudhope, manager of Mumford & Sons: “Unregulated ticket resale websites are out of control. While we wait for Government to act, it is essential that music businesses develop ticketing strategies that aim to disrupt the touts and help fans.”
– Guide available to download here
– Leading ticketing and D2C services Active Ticketing, DICE, Music Glue, Pledge Music, Scarlet Mist, Songkick, Twickets and WeGotTickets sign the FanFair Declaration
Wednesday September 14th
FanFair Alliance, the recently-launched campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, and the Music Managers Forum have today published a guide to help managers minimise the scalping and resale of their artists’ tickets on profiteering websites such as GET ME IN!, Seatwave, Stubhub and Viagogo.
Available as a free download from www.fanfairalliance.org, the guide offers Ten Tips To Beat The Touts, as well as case studies from leading managers and music industry professionals – including Adam Tudhope (Everybody’s), Caius Pawson (Young Turks), Alex Bruford (ATC Live), Angus Baskerville (13 Artists) and Richard Jones (Key Music Management). It will be circulated by the MMF to its 500 manager members.
Speaking at a launch event in London, Mumford & Sons manager and FanFair Alliance co-founder Adam Tudhope described the guide as a “first step” towards pooling industry knowledge to fight back against touts and develop pro-consumer ticketing strategies.
Tudhope said:
“When we launched FanFair in July of this year, we encouraged managers, agents, promoters and others in the live music business to continue to innovate to ensure our artists’ tickets reach their intended audience at the right price. We all know that this is a huge challenge. We are operating within a dysfunctional market, where the abuse of unregulated ticket resale websites is out of control. However, while we wait for Government to act, it is essential that managers and music businesses develop ticketing strategies that aim to disrupt the touts and help fans. This guide marks a first step towards that goal.”
Measures advised in the guide include:
– Applying tighter terms and conditions to control transferability of tickets (such as printing names on tickets)
– Ensuring fans have clear information about those terms at the point of sale
– Offering a face value resale or reallocation option for ticket-buyers who are genuinely unable to attend an event
FanFair is also delighted to announce that a raft of leading ticketing services and direct-to-consumer businesses have signed our Declaration – with Active Ticketing, DICE, Music Glue, Pledge Music, Scarlet Mist, Songkick, Twickets and WeGotTickets all committing their names to the campaign against online ticket touting.
On this development, ATC Management partner and FanFair co-founder Brian Message added:
“In direct contrast to the backward-looking and parasitical secondary resale websites, it is exciting that the UK has produced such a vibrant, entrepreneurial and competitive market of next-generation ticketing and D2C businesses. Music managers have been working with the majority of these services for a number of years. As well as sharing FanFair’s repugnance of mass online ticket touting, all are committed to ensuring the live music sector operates more fairly for artists and for fans. We are delighted to have them under the FanFair umbrella.”
These eight services join a growing number of music professionals and businesses supporting FanFair, including managers of Years & Years, Biffy Clyro, Iron Maiden, Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, Little Mix, One Direction, Cheryl, Mark Knopfler, Nick Cave, Chvrches, Noel Gallagher, Placebo and the music industry bodies AFEM, AIF, AIM, BASCA, FAC, MMF, MPG, MU, MVT and PRS for Music.
Following an independent report by Professor Michael Waterson on consumer protection measures in the secondary ticketing market, FanFair is urging Government to enforce existing consumer laws and provide proper regulation and transparency in how tickets are resold.
Government is expected to respond shortly to recommendations made by Professor Waterson, while a separate compliance review by the Competition & Markets Authority of 4 UK secondary ticket platforms – GET ME IN!, Seatwave, StubHub and Viagogo – is due for publication later in 2016.