MPs right to criticise viagogo but live music has bigger problems than secondary websites and touts

When a committee of MPs takes the “highly unusual” step of urging consumers to boycott a company it’s going to make a noise.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee did just that with secondary ticketing website viagogo this morning, urging fans to steer clear until the company “fully complies with the law”.

They also had a go at Google for carrying its adds, welcomed the Competition and Market’s Authority’s enforcement action against it, urged the watchdog to act “promptly and decisively” to “bring viagogo into line” and regretted the time and public money that is being spent on doing that.

Someone at that company really needs to wake up and smell the coffee. There's a reason its rivals have opted to take their regulatory medicine. It really isn’t doing itself any favours by engaging in a fight like this.

Another problem with the attention that has been given to the company, and its business practices, is that it’s rather detracted form the other important points the committee has made about live music, which makes a hugely important contribution to the UK’s cultural and its economic life.

It is an industry that employs 28,000 people, and generated almost £1n in terms of gross value added in 2017, a year in which 29.1m people attended concerns and festivals in the UK.

Looked at in those terms, it is a stunning success. But all is not rosy in its garden and its problems go far beyond people buying tickets from secondary websites and getting fleeced.

The report highlights numerous issues. Venues have been closing, especially smaller ones. The way in which the benefits of live music are shared around the country is distinctly uneven. In terms of gross spend, for example, the North East generated £51m, compared to £194m in the Midlands, compared to more than £1bn in London.

Despite this the capital has fewer arenas per person than do other major cities and one witnessed stated that it is “trending down” with respect to its international rivals.

The industry is dogged by competition issues and conflicts of interests that Tom Gray, from the band Gomez, pointed out “would not be tolerated in any other industry”.

Then there is Brexit, and the issues it poses to performers. The report also provides a case study on Grime, a successful UK created genre which is having to overcome considerable barriers put up by local councils, licensees and the police. The spectre of racism looms.

These issues go way beyond the problems created by ticket touts and secondary websites. When it’s finished with viagogo, the committee would like the Competition and Markets Authority to take a look at some of them. It should heed that call, and the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport should take its recommendations seriously too.

Live music is that rare thing, a financial success story that is also a positive delight. But it is an industry that faces considerable challenges, one that is kept going (in some places) as much by love is it is by money. What it badly needs is a little more love from government, both local and central. The furore over viagogo mustn’t be allowed to distract attention from that.