Featured Image: Nicholas Green/Unsplash
A parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s live music sector has recommended that the country’s consumer law be amended to regulate ticket selling.
The report, titled “Am I Ever Gonna See You Live Again?”, aims to explore the challenges and opportunities within the Australian live music industry.
It also called upon the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor the industry for anti-competitive conduct.
The inquiry stated that consumer laws should be changed to improve transparency in fee and charging practices for concert tickets. Furthermore, it wanted to see an end to “conduct that distorts, manipulates or undermines consumer choice, without necessarily being misleading or deceptive, such as practices that create an undue sense of urgency or scarcity”.
“The big commercial festivals are falling over but many smaller, grassroots, community led festivals are flourishing,” said MP Brian Mitchell, chair of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts.
“The challenge is how to encourage this, while ensuring the musicians who play at them do so in a way that allows them to pay their bills.”
The national inquiry, which took almost a year to complete, heard from witnesses that put the “struggling live music sector” down to a lack of competition and a business practice that puts production, venues, ticketing and more all under the control of one company.
The inquiry found that, in Australia, about 90 per cent of the major concert market is controlled by Live Nation, TEG Live, and AEG Frontier.
COVID-19 has also taken its toll on the industry, with around 1,300 live music venues closing and nightclub attendances at almost half of pre-pandemic levels.
Only half of the country’s festivals have made profits in the post-Covid environment, with a median profit of $731,579 (£357,800/$462,700/€426,700), and about 35% lost money (with a median of a $470,000 loss), the inquiry found.
Share this