UK moves to regulate secondary ticketing stalls

The UK Parliament has cancelled ticket touting select committee inquiry ahead of the snap General Election. Ongoing inquiries instigated by Parliament's Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee on ticket touting and the effect of Brexit on the creative industries, tourism and the Digital Single Market have also been put on hold. Chair of the committee, Damian Collins, said in a statement: "Although we are unable to complete these important inquiries, there is no bar to our successors in the next Parliament taking up the evidence received - which has been published on the committee's website - and finishing them. Given the importance of all these subjects, we hope that the new committee will do so".

In other ticketing news, Live Nation boss Michael Rapino has said that he doesn't think efforts to legislate against secondary ticketing will have much effect, saying that the industry should focus on pricing and technology issue. through its Ticketmaster business, LNE owns secondary ticketing platforms like Seatwave and Get Me In. "As long as the [ticketing] market's gigantic, you'll have sophisticated players trying to figure out how to monetise it", Rapino said at the Canadian Music Week conference "My instincts are always on the free market" adding "I just think [efforts to legislate against touting are] so unrealistic. I think some of these [efforts] are decent attempts, but I don't think overall, until you start pricing the product better, and/or have better technology to deliver the fan their ticket, that you'll start to make a difference. We're the only industry in the world that has a higher retail value the second it's sold".

DEAG plans expansion in the UK

Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG), the parent company of Kilimanjaro Live and classical music promoter Raymond Gubbay Ltd, has signalled that it plans to expand it activities in the UK, despite Britain’s vote in June to leave the European Union. In its financial results for the first half of 2016 (H1), Peter Schwenkow, chairman of the German concert/festival promoter and ticket agent, praised “better-than-expected” growth from its British subsidiaries and said, “despite ‘Brexit’, the English market remains highly attractive to DEAG”, adding that he is “examining opportunistic acquisition opportunities” in the UK. Schwenkow told IQ that he expects “continued dynamic growth” in the UK in 2017, chiefly from “six major rock tours [currently] in preparation”.

Better news for UK music industry

IQ reports that at least four new music venues will open in London in 2016, as the grassroots sector begins to rebound from recent troubles. DHP Family recently acquired ex-MAMA & Company venues The Borderline in Soho and The Garage in Highbury from Live Nation, while Steve Ball’s Columbo Group snapped up Camden’s The Jazz Cafe and The Barfly from the same company. The Jazz Cafe recently reopened, with The Barfly to be relaunched as The Camden Assembly in the coming months. 

And Music Week reports that more than one in three attendees at live music events in Britain last year were music tourists – an increase of 16% on 2014. A total of 10.4 million music tourists attended UK festivals and concerts in 2015, of which 767,000 were from overseas, reveals UK Music’s Wish You Were Here 2016 report, released today. Foreign concertgoers bought £38m worth of tickets and spent an average of £852 each (up 13% on 2014). The report also revealed that music tourists spent a total of £3.7 billion in 2015, with 39,034 full-time jobs reliant on the sector. It was also strong year for British live music in general, with 3.7m people attending a festival and 24m at least one concert 

http://www.iq-mag.net/2016/06/london-resurgent-capitals-venues-fight-back/#.V1qswLsrKM8

Could the 'agent of change' principle finally become law?

Michael Dugher

The live music sector has welcomed amendments to the UK's Planning Bill which would introduce the 'agent of change' principle into UK law on a statutory basis. The amendments are planned to be debated this week as part of the Public Bill Committee consideration of the Housing And Planning Bill in the House of Commons. 

When Labour's Michael Dugher  became shadow culture secretary, one of the first issues he raised was the plight of small music venues. Of the 430 that traded in London between 2007 and 2015, only 245 remain open. At the Music Trust's Venue Day 2015, Dugher, renowned for his love of karaoke, warned: "There is a real crisis at the moment and that's why we need a national strategy to support small music venues before many more shut." 

The agent of change principle ensures that a new development must shoulder responsibility for compliance when situated near an existing music venue. Similarly, if a music venue opens in a residential area, it too would be responsible for complying with residential requirements.  


http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/12/exclusive-labour-tables-amendments-housing-bill-save-small-music-venues

UK festivals gain more time to prepare for rating battle

The UK festival industry has been given more time to prepare its case on how business rates are assessed against agricultural land that hosts music events. Music Weeek reports that a Live Nation led coalition of 720 interested parties, including the Association Of Independent Festivals (AIF), UK Music, The Agents’ Association, The Concert Promoters Association and The Association Of Festival Organisers, has called for an immediate halt to the rating of festival sites for business rates by the Valuation Office Agency  until a clear policy is established. “We do not consider that festivals and events sites should now be rateable as they are essentially temporary and ancillary uses of agricultural land,” it said in a letter to MPs. 

Proposed changes including backdating the rate bill for five years could put the future of some festivals at risk as rural landowners take stick of financial risks. Last week’s Spending Review by Chancellor George Osborne did not include an announcement on the Business Rates Review, which will now revert to March 2016. AIF general manager Paul Reed said events and festival organisers are hoping the Government will use the extra time to take action on business rates for the sector.

DEAG’s MyTicket Expands into UK Market

UK promoters have yet another ticketing service to consider after DEAG launched its MyTicket platform in London, recently. In partnership with its subsidiary, Kilimanjaro Live, MyTicket.co.uk launched on 30 June becoming a purchase hub for all events in the UK with ties to the DEAG group.

MyTicket.de has been running in Germany for six months and in the first quarter of DEAG’s current business year processed 5% of the group’s tickets sold online. The UK operation will sell tickets for both Kilimanjaro and Raymond Gubbay Ltd (another subsidiary of the German live entertainment conglomerate). Kilimanjaro stages around 350 events a year, including Ed Sheeran’s record-breaking three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium; and arena tours by Peter Gabriel, Wet Wet Wet, Nitro Circus and Andrea Bocelli.

Raymond Gubbay, meanwhile, is recognised as one of the UK’s leading promoters of classical events, staging in excess of 500 performances annually, with its Christmas season at the Royal Albert Hall among its best known.

DEAG states that its UK affiliates sell about 1.2 million tickets per year. The launch of MyTicket.co.uk will now merge those companies’ sales activities, ahead of plans to open the platform to third party providers next year.

Hinting at even greater ambitions for the ticketing division, DEAG founder Peter Schwenkow adds, “With MyTicket we are considerably expanding our value chain and are equally successful in the United Kingdom as in the G/S/A countries. With the attractive content within DEAG group, we can rely on excellent conditions for an ongoing rapid growth for our ticketing platform.”

http://www.ilmc.com/index.php/news/newshome/2753-deag-s-myticket-expands-into-uk-market

Slight decrease in CD and download album sales in the US and UK

The BPI says that album sales in the UK fel by 5.25% in in the first half of 2015 (38.1m down to 36.1m). Sales of downloaded LPs actually declined faster than their physical rivals: In the first half of 2015, CD album sales in the UK fell 5.7% from 22.68m to 21.38m. In the same period, sales of digital albums dropped 6.6% to 13.86m. 

Anbd overall album sales in the US – real album sales, not counting ‘track/streaming equivalents’ – were down 4% year-on-year in the first six months of 2015… as streaming continued to soar. According to new data from Nielsen/Billboard, 116.1 million album unit sales were clocked up versus 120.9 million units in H1 2014. The growth of vinyl album sales continued: the format grew 38.4% to 5.6 million in H1 2015, taking a 5% share of CD/digital/vinyl formats in the US. In the UK, vinyl album sales shot up once again in the Jan-June period, up 56.3% to 833,137 sales in H1 2015.

UK sees 500 ticket frauds reported in a month

UK Action Fraud has revealed it received more than 500 reports of ticket fraud within the last month. The fraud and internet crime reporting centre said the high figure was largely attributed to the number of UK festivals and high-profile concerts taking place over the summer. Of the 533 reports Action Fraud has received so far in June, 228 mentioned a company called Circle Tickets, which was advertising tickets for shows including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and AC/DC at inflated prices, and recently ceased trading online. The reports are now with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). NFIB said one third of crime reports related to ticket fraud in 2014 happened in the May-July period.

Goldschmidt calls for UK tax breaks for music

Cooking Vinyl boss Martin Goldschmidt has called on the UK government to provide tax breaks for music, in a keynote speech at The Great Escape. Noting that there are tax scheme that help investors, he said these still did not directly benefit the recorded music sector itself saying "why don't we have something that directly benefits the record business, rather than doing so via those private investors and their funds" adding "The obvious move is to have a tax break on recording itself. There's support for R&D in many other industries - the pharmaceuticals industry, for example - and far closer to home we see tax breaks for film, games, theatre, and there's one coming in for orchestras in April 2016. So you've got big tax breaks in the creative industries. But the one for orchestras specifically excluded rock and pop, because they don't want to give money to Coldplay. But if you have 25% tax break on recordings, and 50% of the money had to be spent in the UK, that would have so many benefits. It would definitely benefit record companies, but that's a naïve way to look at it. Most of the records we release are funded by the artist and licensed to us, and they would benefit too" and "it would help the whole recording industry sector, create jobs and then extend benefits to the wider creative industry".

New CDM Regulations In Place

The new CDM regulations came into effect on April 6th 2015, after five years of review. The purpose of the regulations is to 'prevent the ill health or death of construction and maintenance operatives, while also allowing for the delivery of good design'. One of the new regulations most notable changes to work towards this is introducing the role of 'Principal Designer' which is not meant to directly replace the CDM coordinator because the duties vary but the coordinator role has been removed. The Principal Designer is responsible for planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating the health and safety in the pre-construction phase of a project including identifying, eliminating or controlling foreseeable risks, ensuring designers carry out their duties and to provide relevant information to the principal contractor so they can carry out their construction safely. Other key changes include a duty to make sure all persons doing the job have the right skills, knowledge, training and experience and that both a principal designer and principal contractor must be appointed on projects with more than one contractor.

You can download guidance for the new regulations here.

UK to regulate ticket re-sales

In a policy U-turn, the UK Government is set to regulate ticket touting, with those breaching the new laws face fines of up to £5,000. The onus on stopping it is to be shifted onto venues, however. The move came from the UK Government who had previously rejected attempts to amend legislation. The amedment now stands a much better chance of passing into law.  Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood recently criticised the “ever-increasing plague of ‘secondary ticketing’ excess” as a “blight on live music and sports events and much to the detriment of fans”.

A spokesman for the Government said: “The provisions agreed today will allow them [venues] to flourish, whilst ensuring consumers are better informed when buying second-hand tickets.” Tory peer Baroness Neville-Rolfe said that “light-touch regulation” was needed

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/online-ticket-touts-may-face-5000-fines-under-law-to-stop-ripoff-prices-10068053.html

New UK Bill puts audiences at risk with ambulance reforms

Rick Player, director of the Independent Ambulance Association (IAA), has exclusively told Access All Areas that the proposed  Deregulation Bill – which has now progressed to the House of Lords - would likely push deaths at events per year into the double digits.  “I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but the effect [that the bill] will have is that people will die as a result of it,” he said.  Section 36 of the Bill states that emergency ambulance services from private providers will be limited to the “request of an NHS ambulance service”. AAA says that In plain terms, private emergency providers would not be able to transport patients from events to hospitals without the explicit request from the NHS.  Paul Reed of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) called the proposed legislation in its current form “deeply illogical and potentially dangerous. 

UK tax relief for orchestras moves a step closer

The UK Government is to introduce new tax relief for orchestras from April 2016, following a public consultation. Chancellor George Osborne first announced the move, which mirrors similar reliefs in theatre, film, videogames and animation, in his autumn statement last year, and now has issued a consultation document outlining proposals and calls from input in their implementation. Director of the Association of British Orchestras Mark Pemberton said: "We welcome the launch of the consultation. Tax relief will make a big difference to our members' resilience in these challenging times, helping them to continue to offer the very best in British music-making to audiences both here in the UK and abroad".

The UK record indusrty in 2014 - streams and vinyl up, downloads and CDs down

Top year for Ed

The end of year sales figures from the UK record industry have few surpises, showing that streaming boomed, downloads peaked, CD sales continued to decline and vinyl sales were up, if comparatively tiny. Figures from the UK's Entertainment Retailer's Association show that the UK download sector brought in 14.9% less in 2014 than 2013 at £338.1 million, while streaming revenues shot up 65.1% bringing in £106 million for the record industry. Streams accounted for 12.6% of consumption overall, digital albums accounted for 25.3% of total units, single track accounted for 13.3%. Physical sales slipped 6.9% and now making up 48.8% of consumption overall it means that overall the UK record industry saw its sales dip 1.6%.

Overall the end of year charts compiled by the Official Charts Company show:

Top Ten Albums of 2014 
1. Ed Sheeran - x (Warner/Atlantic)
2. Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour (Universal/Capitol)
3. George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage (Sony/Columbia)
4. Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love (Warner/Atlantic)
5. Coldplay - Ghost Stories (Warner/Parlophone)
6. Paloma Faith - A Perfect Contradiction (Sony/RCA)
7. One Direction - Four (Sony/Syco)
8. Olly Murs - Never Been Better (Sony/Epic)
9. Pink Floyd - The Endless River (Warner/Rhino)
10. Take That - III (Universal/Polydor)

Top Ten Vinyl Albums of 2014 
1. Pink Floyd - The Endless River (Warner/Rhino)
2. Arctic Monkeys - AM (Domino Recordings)
3. Royal Blood - Royal Blood (Warner/Warner Bros)
4. Oasis - Definitely Maybe (Sony/Big Brother)
5. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (Warner/Rhino)
6. Jack White - Lazaretto (Beggars/XL)
7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (Sony/Silvertone)
8. Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways (Sony/RCA)
9. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (Warner/Rhino)
10. Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? (Sony/Big Brother)

Top Ten Singles of 2014 
1. Pharrell Williams - Happy (Sony Music/Columbia)
2. Clean Bandit feat Jess Glynne - Rather Be (Warner/Atlantic)
3. John Legend - All Of Me (Sony/Columbia)
4. Mr Probz - Waves (Sony/Left Lane Recordings)
5. Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (Warner/Atlantic)
6. Ella Henderson - Ghost (Sony/Syco)
7. Sam Smith - Stay With Me (Universal/Capitol)
8. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass (Sony/Epic)
9. Pitbull feat Kesha - Timber (Sony/J-Mr 305-Polo Grounds)
10. George Ezra - Budapest (Sony/Columbia)

Top Ten Most Streamed Tracks in 2014 (compiled by Official Charts Company based on chart-returning audio streaming services)

1. Clean Bandit feat Jess Glynne - Rather Be (Warner/Atlantic)
2. Pharrell Williams - Happy (Sony Music/Columbia)
3. John Legend - All of Me (Sony Music/Columbia)
4. Mr Probz - Waves (Sony/Left Lane Recordings)
5. Sam Smith - Stay With Me (Universal/Capitol)
6. Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (Warner/Atlantic)
7. George Ezra - Budapest (Sony/Columbia)
8. Ed Sheeran - Sing (Warner/Atlantic)
9. Pitbull feat Kesha - Timber (Sony/J-Mr 305-Polo Grounds)
10. Magic - Rude (Sony/RCA)

UK's anti touting law moves forwards

The UK's House Of Lords has voted to include a new clause in the Consumer Rights Bill that would force people touting tickets online to provide buyers with  extra information, a move designed to make it clearer who exactly it is reselling tickets, how big a mark-up is being added, and what the risks are to the consumer by buying tickets on the secondary market. The amendment stems from a report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group On Ticket Abuse back in April, which hoped to speed up the prospect of some ticketing touting regulation by amending the in-development Consumer Rights Bill, rather than having to promote bespoke ticket touting legislation to government or via a private members bill. The amendment, which was approved by a small margin - 183 votes to 171 by the Lords - would oblige a ticket seller using a resale site like Viagogo, Seatwave or StubHub to reveal their identity, declare the face value of tickets they are selling, provide seat numbers and booking references associated with the ticket, and state whether the terms and conditions of the ticket being sold give the promoter the right to block entry to the event if they discover the ticket was resold. The secondary sites would also be obliged to ensure this information is given. APPG co-chair Mike Weatherley MP said: "It's been clear for a long time that this market is not working in the interest of genuine fans or the people who put in all the hard work and investment to put on live events. Anyone operating honestly has nothing to fear from these changes, but they will make a big difference for ordinary fans. It's imperative that the government doesn't try to reverse this amendment when the bill comes back to the Commons".

Radio Academy restructures

The UK's Radio Academy has announced some radical changes that will see the axing of its two key events - the Radio Festival and Radio Academy Awards (for most of its history know as the Sony Awards) - and the axing of its London office and staff of four. It seems that the loss of Sony as a headline sponsor of the annual awards show triggered  a "strategic review" but BBC Radio 1's Ben Cooper, who is Chair of the Academy, said: "I'm confident and determined that as an industry we can create an exciting and modern event that retains the gravitas of over 30 years of Awards".

Big growth in vinyl sales for 2013

Vinyl is back in fashion in the UK - and  the Official Charts Company and record label trade body the BPI have revealed that 2013 have now crossed the half million mark with the best sellers being:

Ten best selling vinyl releases of 2013... so far
1. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
2. Arctic Monkeys - AM
3. David Bowie - The Next Day
4. Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
5. Queens Of The Stone Age - Like Clockwork
6. Atoms For Peace - Amok
7. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City
8. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
9. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
10 Black Sabbath - 13

Vinyl sales declined at the beginning of the 'noughties' but have seen a revival - here is a year by year chart of the units shifted:

2003 - 579,248
2004 - 453,254
2005 - 351,224
2006 - 250,926
2007 - 205,292
2008 - 208,526
2009 - 219,449
2010 - 234,471
2011 - 337,041
2012 - 388,768
2013 - 548,142 (so far)

UK to support global music sales push

The UK Government is going to make grants available for Indie record labels  to boost sales over seas. Millions of pounds of funding will be available to push British success - in 2012 the UK had 13.3% of the global music market.  

Huge Ticket Fraud in the UK

A massive ticketing fraud in the UK continues to claim victims with over 3,000 counterfeit tickets already cancelled or confiscated from shocked event fans. Shows by Bruno Marrs, Neil Young, Beyonce, Michael Buble, Kings of Leon at the 02 in London and LG Arena in Birmingham along with Live Nations's Wireless Festival have been targeted, with the tickets seemingly sold on secondary ticketing re-sale sites such as Viagogo, StubHub and GetMeIn and the popular GumTree site. Police are investigating.

Small rise in online piracy in the UK

The number of British web users accessing pirated content rose slightly in the last quarter of 2012, according to a copyright infringement report published by media regulator OfCom.

The report says that 18% of UK web-users streamed or downloaded unlicensed digital media content including music, film TV, ebooks, games and other software - at least once in the three months up to the end of January 2013, with 386 million unlicensed files accessed overall. This is a small rise on the 16% accessing unlicensed digital media content in the previous quarter. About 5% of users relied more or less exclusively on illegal services and music is by far the most pirated kind of content, accounting for around 280 million of the 386 million files pirated.