Music Week says there is a growing consensus in the live sector that the government needs to step in and regulate the so called secondary ticketing market - ie agencies that buy up tickets for events and then sell them on at a profit (normally online), and auction websites that enable individual touts to resell tickets for profit.
As I remember it, the government previously called on the live sector to introduce its own regulations to govern the resale of tickets, threatening to introduce statutory regulation if it failed to do so. A number of key players in the live industry immediately responded by welcoming the idea of laws covering ticketing touting in the entertainment sector to mirror those that already exist regulating the resale of football tickets. Government in turn responded by saying it didn't really want to regulate after all, and re-urged the live music industry - including primary and secondary ticket sellers - to agree a voluntary code of conduct.
Such self-regulation has been since much discussed, with the artist management community proposing a Resale Rights Society that would give legitimacy to the web firms that provide ticket resale services (mainly the auction sites used by independent touts) in return for a commitment to protect consumer interests and to pay a share of their profits back to the artist and promoter communities. But so far the web firms have not been so keen to participate.
While tour promoters get pissed off when they see touts making large profits by reselling tickets with massive mark ups, it is when online ticket resellers fail to actually deliver the goods - either deliberately or through incompetence - that the whole issue of the secondary ticketing market becomes more news worthy. Which is why the whole thing is back in the news again - after a reported 5000 people bought tickets for the Reading and Leeds festivals from dodgy websites who failed to actually supply any tickets, nor, in some cases, a refund.
Speaking to Music Week about the secondary ticketing problem, Reading/Leeds chief Melvin Benn said that the actions of dodgy ticket touts - who can seem very legitimate through online trading - is damaging the reputations of legit promoters. He said: "People turn up with a printout looking for their tickets and it's us who get the blame for not having them. We have to explain to each and every person what has happened and it becomes very difficult".
Whether government will actually act on this remains to be seen. Of course growing concern regarding secondary ticketing comes as some major music and ticketing companies forge partnerships with the resellers, or in Ticketmaster's case actually acquire them. Some reckon such partnerships and acquisitions are good for consumers, because the big music firms can force regulations on the ticket resellers as part their deals. However, others say it gives the secondary ticketing market unwarranted legitimacy, and further confuses consumers who find it hard to tell official ticket sellers and dodgy resellers apart.
Whether government or the industry can find a sensible solution for this one remains, of course, to be seen.