Live Nation’s Concert Week expands to 20 new countries

Live Nation is launching its fan-favourite Concert Week deal in several new markets, including Australia, Asia, Europe, the UK and the Middle East, in honour of 10 years of the annual promotion.

The lauded initiative offers fans cut-rate tickets for top tours across a variety of genres, like pop/rock, hip-hop, and comedy, and includes gigs from club level to arenas to festivals. The annual event will expand to 20 additional countries this year, a substantial jump from the US and Canada where the deal kicks off the summer concert season.

Launching next week, the promotion’s dates and deals depend on host countries and will run as inventory allows. Across the board, tickets as low as $25/£25/€25 are on offer, with daily giveaways and prizes to be won in certain territories.

In North America, fans can snap up $25 tickets from 8-14 May for over 5,000 shows from over 900 artists, including Janet Jackson, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Peso Pluma, Alanis Morissette, Cage The Elephant and 21 Savage. The price tag includes fees (apart from local taxes), with the all-in pricing coming just one week after over 250 artists signalled support for the Fans First Act.

The US bill aims to increase transparency in ticket sales and would require sellers and resellers to break down ticket costs, along with other primary and secondary sale reforms. Live Nation endorsed the bill alongside the National Independent Venue Associaton (NIVA), Recording Academy, Eventbrite, and others.

In the UK, over 40,000 tickets will be available for £25, for gigs from the likes of Doja Cat, Charli XCX, Shania Twain, McFly, and IDLES, from 6-12 May.

Additional countries benefiting are Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand

More than 4,000 tickets are on discount in France from 8-14 May. Live Nation España is offering giveaways for The Weeknd’s Madrid and Barcelona showings, signed Coldplay posters, and two tickets for each of Louis Tomlinson’s Bilbao, Barcelona, and Madrid performances.

From 6-12 May in Denmark, fans can grab 300 KR (€25) tickets for J Balvin, girl in red, Journey, and more, and daily contests will be held in Belgium from 8-14 May for giveaways to gigs like James Blake and Louis Tomlinson.

Live Nation GSA is offering two tiers of discounts — €25 passes are available for Wallows’ Cologne and Berlin gigs and Lil Yachty’s Vienna performance, along with €40 ones for Usher’s Berlin show, and Rod Stewart’s outings in Stuttgart, Zurich, and Mönchengladbach.

Concert Week will also land in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden, with details to be announced.

In the UAE, Live Nation is giving away tickets to 13 different music and comedy shows — including Scorpions’ Abu Dhabi gig, the second edition of Wireless Festival in Abu Dhabi, and Lea Salonga’s Coca-Cola Arena show in Dubai — from 8-14 May.

Additional countries benefiting are Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, with deals to be announced across May.

In addition to popular tours from Glass Animals, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and Melanie Martinez, the deal includes festivals for the second year. While Live Nation added $99 festival tickets to its offerings last year — which included one-day passes to New York’s Governor’s Ball and Miami’s Afro Nation — fewer festivals are included in this year’s promotion.

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Billie Eilish, Green Day and more back Fans First Act

Billie Eilish, Green Day and Lorde are among 250+ artists to back a bill that aims to reform the live event ticketing system in the US.

The Fans First Act, introduced by senators in December, is designed to help increase transparency in ticket sales, protect customers “from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets,” and hold “bad actors who engage in illegal ticket sale practices” to account.

In the latest push for the reform, the Fix the Tix coalition has written a letter urging the Senate Commerce Committee to support the bill.

In addition to the aforementioned artists, the letter has been signed by the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz, Lorde, Sia, Train, Fall Out Boy, Graham Nash, Becky G and Chappell Roan.

The legislation has also been endorsed by Live Nation, National Independent Venue Association, Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America, Eventbrite, North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, International Association of Venue Managers, Music Managers Forum and the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), among others.

“We are joining together to say that the current system is broken”

“We are joining together to say that the current system is broken: predatory resellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favourite artists at a fair price,” reads the letter, addressed to Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

It continues: “We, as artists, as music lovers, and as concert attendees ourselves, urge you to support the Fans First Act to combat predatory resellers’ deceptive ticketing practices and the secondary platforms, which also profit from these practices. Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art.”

The Fans First Act would require all ticket sellers and resellers to disclose and break down the total cost of a ticket, including fees. It would also bolster the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which was introduced in 2016 to prohibit scalpers from using software to buy high volumes of tickets, by further prohibiting the use of bots to purchase tickets.

The senators co-sponsoring the bill are Republican senators John Cornyn, Marsha Blackburn and Roger Wicker, and Democrats Amy Klobuchar, Ben Ray Luján, Peter Welch and Mark Kelly.

Fans First is one of several bills introduced in recent years aimed at combating unfair ticketing practices, including the BOSS and SWIFT Act and the TICKET Act.

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US senators tackle touts with Fans First Act

Live Nation and others have given their backing to new regulations introduced by a bipartisan group of US senators in a bid to reform the live event ticketing system.

The Fans First Act – proposed by Republican senators John Cornyn, Marsha Blackburn and Roger Wicker, and Democrats Amy Klobuchar, Ben Ray Luján and Peter Welch – is designed to help increase transparency in ticket sales, protect customers “from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets”, and hold “bad actors who engage in illegal ticket sale practices” to account.

Included in the measures is a requirement for all ticket sellers to disclose the total cost of the ticket upfront, including fees, along with a breakdown of the ticket cost, clear terms and conditions, details of the seat or section they are selling in, and whether or not they are the original seller.

The legislation is also seeking to strengthen the ban on the use of bots to buy tickets, as well as requiring sellers to provide proof of purchase to consumers within 24 hours of purchase, and refund the full cost of the ticket when events are cancelled. In addition, it would ban speculative ticketing, prevent the use of deceptive websites and bad actors masquerading as legitimate sellers and impose civil penalties on resellers engaging in illegal ticket sale practices.

“The current ticketing system is riddled with problems and doesn’t serve the needs of fans, teams, artists, or venues,” says Sen Cornyn. “This legislation would rebuild trust in the ticketing system by cracking down on bots and others who take advantage of consumers through price gouging and other predatory practices and increase price transparency for ticket purchasers.”

“Buying a ticket to see your favourite artist or team is out of reach for too many Americans,” adds Sen Klobuchar. “Bots, hidden fees, and predatory practices are hurting consumers whether they want to catch a home game, an up-and-coming artist or a major headliner like Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny. From ensuring fans get refunds for cancelled shows to banning speculative ticket sales, this bipartisan legislation will improve the ticketing experience.”

“We welcome legislation that brings positive reform to live event ticketing and protects fans and artists from predatory resale practices”

Live Nation has backed the move in a post shared by president and CEO Michael Rapino on social media.

“We welcome legislation that brings positive reform to live event ticketing and protects fans and artists from predatory resale practices,” says the LN statement, “We’ve long supported a federal all-in pricing mandate, banning speculative ticketing and deceptive websites, as well as other measures, and we look forward to our continued work with policymakers to advocate for even stronger reforms and enforcement.”

The legislation has also been endorsed by the Fix the Tix Coalition, National Independent Venue Association, Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America, Eventbrite, North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, International Association of Venue Managers, Future of Music Coalition, Music Managers Forum and the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), among others.

“Fans, artists, and our entire industry recognise that the current ticket-buying disarray driven by predatory secondary sellers is an emergency,” adds Fix the Tix. “Passage of comprehensive ticketing reforms is the only solution that will put money back into the pockets of consumers and bridge the divide that ticket resellers have created between fans and artists.”

The Fans First Act is the latest ticketing legislation to be put forward in the US in the wake of 2022’s string of controversies, the most high-profile of which involved the onsales for tours by Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.

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