Support Builds For Live Nation-Backed FAIR Ticketing Reform

More than 20 artist coalitions, management groups, labels and agencies have announced support for the FAIR Ticketing reform introduced by Live Nation last week.

y.ticketing
A Ticketmaster sign hangs on the wall at the FTX Arena ticket window on November 18, 2022 in Miami. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating the parent company of Ticketmaster for possible antitrust violations. News of the investigation broke days after Taylor Swift concert ticket sales overwhelmed the Ticketmaster system. Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The proposal — it’s an acronym for Fans & Artists Insisting on Reforms in Ticketing — would mandate artist control for how resale is handled and create “real consequences” for “sites that turn a blind eye to illegally acquired tickets, allow ticket speculation, and ignore artists’ rules.”

The act also includes reform proposals that have generally broad support — expanded enforcement of the BOTS Act, a ban on selling speculative tickets and a requirement for all-in pricing, which is already being pushed by the Biden Administration through rulemaking and other non-legislative avenues.

In addition to Live Nation, the other groups backing the plan include:

  • 724 Management 
  • Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC)
  • Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
  • Crush Music
  • The Core Entertainment 
  • Endeavor
  • Faculty Inc. 
  • Full Stop Management
  • Gellman Management 
  • Laffitte Management Group 
  • Music Artists Coalition (MAC)
  • REBEL 
  • Red Light Management
  • Salxco 
  • Songwriters of North America (SONA)
  • United Talent Agency (UTA)
  • Universal Music Group
  • Vector Management 
  • Wasserman Media Group
  • Wolfson Entertainment Inc. 
  • WME

“These groups stand proudly behind artists every day, helping guide and support their careers and building lifelong fanbases. Fans mean everything to artists, and the best way to ensure a fair ticketing experience for live music fans is to put more control into the hands of the artists themselves,” according to a release. “Artists create their music and their concerts and these organizations agree it’s only fair that artists should decide their ticketing rules too.”

Critics of the FAIR Ticketing proposal — chief among them, secondary ticketing giant StubHub, which is advocating for state laws protecting ticket resellers — argue that Live Nation’s push for reform is a ruse that doesn’t “include significant reforms to its own practices”; indeed, Ticketmaster and Live Nation insist that the FAIR proposal codifies as law or rule what the ticketing giant already does as a matter of course.