The trade body for UK concert promoters, the Concert Promoters Association, has given its backing to the Music Manager Forum's proposals to regulate the secondary ticketing market through a Resale Rights Society, which is interesting because the live music sector had been quite non-committal to the proposals prior to that.
As much previously reported, various tour promoters have expressed increasing concern about the growth in online ticket touting via auction websites like eBay, with some advocating the introduction of new laws to restrict touts and web firms who host the auctions from profiting from the resale of tickets to their shows. The MMF, however, has proposed a self-regulation system where secondary ticketing websites are given legitimacy by the music industry in return for certain commitments being made to protect customer interests and, more importantly, for a commitment to pass a cut of any resale profits back to the artist and promoter community.
The CPA discussed the Resale Rights Society proposal at their AGM last week and decided to give it its backing. Welcoming the CPA support, Music Week quote Resale Rights Society chairman-elect Marc Marot thus: "The CPA's decision is fantastic news for the Resale Rights Society, the fans and the industry. It means we can begin to implement our strategy to protect fans and return some of the profit generated by ticket resellers to the event owners who enable their very existence".