Leading North American live entertainment and ticketing groups including NIVA, APAP, See Tickets and Dice have joined forces as Fix The Tix to advocate for more equitable concert ticketing.
Among the 19 founding members are major trade groups and companies that represent venues, promoters, agents, managers, the performing arts, artist and songwriter groups, recorded music, and independent ticketing companies.
National Independent Venues Association (NIVA), Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and the Recording Academy are among those to have put their name to the initiative.
Fix The Tix said in a statement that it is representative of those who “take on all the risk” in organising live events.
It added: “A broad coalition of live event industry organizations and professionals have formed to collectively advocate for a ticketing experience better than the nightmare many fans and artists currently navigate.
“This coalition represents stakeholders who take on all the risk to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences and bring joy, employment, and economic impact to communities across America.
“We are coming together to protect fans from price gouging and deceptive and predatory ticketing practices. There will be more to come from our coalition soon.”
The coalition has been formed in the wake of a series of negative experiences for fans, such as Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift pre-sale last year that was disrupted by an unprecedented wave of bot attacks.
Last month, US Senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, introduced legislation to improve competition within the live event ticketing markets.
The ‘Unlock Ticketing Markets Act’ would help to restore competition by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the use of excessively long multi-year contracts that lock out competitors, according to the Senators.
A press release stated: “Today’s primary ticketing market is dominated by one company that by some estimates has locked up 70 to 80% market share and has used its dominance to pressure venues to agree to ticketing contracts that last up to ten years, insulating it from competition.”
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