Live Nation's COO's call to arms against secondary ticketing

Live Nation's COO's call to arms against secondary ticketing

Live Nation's COO Paul Latham, in a long letter/essay published by Music Week, addressed the problem of secondary ticketing.

"The rampant proliferation of the secondary market has created a parasitic business for profiteers who have no investment in the music industry", he says. A market that endangers both the artists that put their creativity on display and the promoters that risk millions. So the only solution is to fight the phenomenon, even without the help of a Government that doesn't seem to acknowledge the reasons of the music business (" it is a free market and people must be able to resell their tickets if they cannot go to events" is the official position).

Latham then asks all the live music industry operators to act together. "The technology does exist to make it harder for tickets to be resold, with non-transferable bar-codes rather than hard tickets, but at the moment that may not be the greatest customer experience, in particular at the venue", he then explains. And, moreover, "We cannot be so naïve to think that our customers wake up each day and worry if they are buying a primary or a secondary ticket... those are industry terms. The call to action and the passion derives from wanting to see their favourite artists/ festivals and they have to be comfortable paying the price they can afford".
And he closes saying: "If we are to keep the prices affordable so that our audiences don’t just comprise of the 'prawn-sandwich brigade' we need to find a way of keeping the money in the industry. We must let those who want to pay extra for tickets subsidise those who cannot - those fans who are the majority and the lifeblood of our live music industry. We are all in this together".