Photo Credit: Edward Cisneros
Massachusetts is moving forward with its “Great Divide Act” ticketing reform bill, which is drawing support from the Music Artists Coalition (MAC), the Future of Music Coalition (FMC), the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), and a number of others.
Governor Maura Healey announced the proposed law, full title “An Act Relative to Closing the Great Divide Between Ticket Prices and Affordability,” during a press conference last week. Among different things, the measure is expected to cap resale event tickets’ prices at 110% of face value; limit secondary platforms’ fees to 10%; and ban speculative/ghost tickets.
Now, the Noah Kahan-endorsed Great Divide Act has officially been submitted to the Massachusetts General Court as part of a broader budget package.
Given the mentioned press conference and the growing list of states with anti-scalping measures in place, the development presumably represents one of the final stops on the road to passage.
Far from sitting idly by and hoping for the best, though, the initially noted organizations – plus the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the RIAA, Folk Alliance International, the Recording Academy, the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), and more – are urging lawmakers “to vote in favor of regulating this predatory marketplace.”
“Artists and fans want the same thing: a fair shot at getting into the room where the music happens,” MAC executive director Ron Gubitz added in a statement. “Speculative tickets and runaway resale fees break that deal for everyone except the industrial-scale ticket flippers. The Great Divide Act draws that line clearly. Massachusetts, led by Gov. Healey and Sen. Fernandes, is leading the country here with this strong set of reforms.”
On the “leading the country” front, while efforts to regulate ticketing aren’t quite rare these days, Massachusetts’ bill is comparatively all-encompassing – a point that NITO executive director Nathaniel Marro emphasized in remarks of his own.
“The introduction of this bill marks another huge victory for artists, venues, fans and everyone who loves live music. By capping resale with no capacity limitations, Massachusetts is being bold and calling for all shows and all fans to be protected against predatory resale,” Marro said in part.
As for what comes next, there doesn’t appear to be a hard date in place for the bill’s final vote. But it’ll be worth tracking the measure’s progress and, in the bigger picture, the many similar laws that are presumably poised to materialize moving forward.
Late last month, Illinois passed multiple related bills – albeit with a focus on mandating all-in pricing, decommissioning ghost tickets, and banning the bot-powered purchase of passes to certain events.
