30+ Music industry organizations urge ticketing reform to replace ‘nightmare fans and artists currently navigate’ with the Fix the Tix plan.
Fix the Tix, a coalition of more than 30 national organizations representing the live entertainment, music, and performing arts industries, has released a plan outlining a roadmap for comprehensive ticketing reform. This pro-artist and pro-consumer plan provides a clear path for Congress to address urgent issues and restore trust in the ticketing experience for fans and artists alike.
The current ticketing market exposes fans and artists to predatory resellers, fraudulent practices, and exorbitant prices. To combat these challenges, Fix the Tix calls on Congress to enact federal legislation that safeguards consumers from fake and speculative tickets, price gouging, and deceptive practices while ensuring transparency and integrity in the ticketing marketplace.
The Fix the Tix plan includes provisions to protect consumers from price gouging, ban speculative and fake tickets, end fraudulent resale practices, ensure transparent ticket pricing, prioritize fan safety, guarantee fans the opportunity to resell their tickets to recoup their costs, provide certainty in ticket-buying across the country, further ban ticket-buying bots, and protect consumers from consolidation.
The plan is backed by a coalition of groups representing artists, actors, live entertainment workers, venues, festivals, performing arts, record labels, promoters, agents, managers, songwriters, consumers, and unions. Supporters include The Recording Academy, Universal Music Group, National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), EventBrite, RIAA, Artists Rights Alliance, and many more.
“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,” announces the collective. “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.”
This comprehensive plan reflects the Fix the Tix coalition’s commitment to equitable and accessible ticketing experiences for all consumers. Fix the Tix pledges to “mobilize the industry, artists, consumers, and communities nationwide, working on a bipartisan basis, to advocate for the passage of this crucial legislation by the end of this Congress.”
The coalition was formed following public legal scrutiny the ticketing agency and Ticketmaster have faced for its practices. The Senate Judiciary Committee calls Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation a “monolith in live entertainment that needs to be restructured.”
Last year, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey launched an investigation into Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s dynamic “supply and demand” pricing strategy and junk fees. In September, Pascrell sent a letter to Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino, demanding the company be “more transparent and fair with its pricing strategies after Ticketmaster confirmed their dynamic pricing is based on supply and demand.”