Today, You Me At Six frontman, Josh Franceschi, along with other music industry figures, appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Parliament to discuss the issues surrounding secondary ticket sites and their negative impact on those attending, or attempting to attend, gigs. Specifically, the meeting was arranged to discuss a potential amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, which will soon come before Parliament.
Franceschi has for some time been leading the charge against the activities of ticket touts and today he continued his campaign. Today’s events follow direct action by Franceschi last month when, as reported in DIY, he appeared at Doc Martens’ sold tickets in person to fans ahead of their Dingwalls, Camden gig in order to thwart touts. Franceschi expressed his views before the Committee, according to AOL, saying, ‘The main losers here are the fans of live music and I don’t want to drive them away from an industry which is already suffering from a lack of money coming into it.’ He also commented specifically on the phenomena of ‘bots’, automated ticket buying software which acquires tickets in large numbers to be sold for a profit on resale websites, commenting that the ‘idea of being ripped off, that doesn’t leave a nice taste in the mouth.’ AOL reports that Franceschi relayed information concerning a petition, signed by acts including Mumford and Sons and One Direction, requesting greater measures to prevent these activities.
Franceschi was not the only high profile member of the music industry to appear before the Committee, with the Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood manager, Ian McAndrew (Wildlife Entertainment CEO) disclosing, per Music Week, that the band were offered a deal to sell tickets direct to resale sites in return for a share of the profits. According to The BBC, Reg Walker, an expert in the field and head of Iridium Consultany, was also present and claimed that tickets for a recent tout by Michael Buble had been passed to these websites by a member of the Canadian’s entourage, in a deal similar to the one McAndrew describes. Also present was CEO of the Music Managers Forum, Annabella Coldrick.
The reaction from the sites in question was not exactly conciliatory with Chris Edmonds, the chairman of Ticketmaster, remarking (via Music Week/DIY) simply that ‘Wherever demand far exceeds supply it creates frustration and disappointment’ and Paul Peak from StubHub stating that, ‘We’re under no legal obligation to police our site.’ According to Music Week, ‘committee members took particular exception to this.’ Even Andrew Bingham MP, who was among the MPs who called for and initiated the meeting, didn’t fully support Franceschi’s stance, arguing, ‘As legislators we don’t want to send the industry backwards. I’m unsure banning bots will solve it.’ Professor Waterson, who works in economics at the University of Warwick also said an outright ban wouldn’t work.
However, Music Week ultimately reports that at the conclusion of the meeting, ‘the mood among campaigners was buoyant.’ Thus, thanks in part to the impassioned speeches, especially that of Josh Franceschi given on the day, there is hope that the problem of secondary ticketing could be tackled in the near future.
Franceschi, however, will not be moving full time into politics any time soon, with You Me At Six performing the aforementioned gig at Dingwalls in Camden on the 26th November before embarking on a full tour of Europe and the UK in March and April of 2017. In between these gigs, the band will have released their new album which is slated to drop on January 13th 2017.
