No More Touts - The Master List
With just a few hours to go until we find out how effective the fan-funded No More Touts show has been, I thought it might be an idea to compile the five (yes, five!) blog posts I wrote on the subject into one large, master list post. Hopefully, with all of them on one page, it'll make it easier to read. Thank you so much to everyone who's shared these posts, emailed me, and invited me to be a part of their group. It's been an amazing few weeks and I can't wait to meet you all! You're all doing an amazing job and the awareness you've raised to not one, but several causes, is beyond measure. You have, undoubtedly, made history. If you want to keep up with how the campaign is progressing, feel free to follow the hashtag #nomoretouts You can also find more information at:@foofamilyuk www.foofightersuk.com PART 1 Tickets go on sale for a high profile show only to sell out in minutes. Before you know it, those same tickets that, moments earlier, had probably been on sale for £50 are on resale websites for hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds more.Sound familiar? If you're a fan of music, theatre, sports, or anything else that requires ticketed entry then you may have had that experience of sitting online and waiting for tickets to go on sale only for there to be none when you finally manage to get to the site. That's if you get onto the site because, all too often, you'll be met with a blank page or a “403: Forbidden” page.The secondary ticket market is a huge problem in the UK. While other countries have regulations on resale of tickets, including how much the ticket can be marked up above the face value, the UK has little in the way of rules and laws. The only rule is that tickets to football matches and Olympic events can't be resold above their face value. Everything else is fair game for the secondary market, an industry that pulls in over £2,000,000,000 in profit every year.While most people probably wouldn't mind paying a little over the face value, in this day and age of austerity, being asked to pay upwards of £200 for a £50 ticket is ludicrous. Yet nothing is being done. Even a Channel 4 episode of Dispatches was ignored. The episode is viewable here:Until now.After seeing how well a fan-funded show worked in the States, a group in the UK decided to do something similar. The Foo Fighters have spoken in favour of fan-funded shows and against the secondary ticket market. They're not thinking of the money (of which little, if any, of the profit from the secondary market actually goes to the band). They're thinking of their own roots, of saving up for albums and tickets, of being stuck in the nosebleed seats. Their current TV series, Sonic Highways, highlights many of these points. However, the UK show would have a twist in that it would highlight the problems of the secondary ticketing market.And, for the second time in a few years, I found myself part of a perfect storm. Back in 2009/2010, I got involved in the “Rage For Christmas #1” campaign and was lucky enough to score tickets to their free show.In mid-September, I was sent the link to a fan-funded Foo Fighters show in Birmingham. After a couple of hours debating it, I pledged £300 for 6 tickets. Less than a week later, we watched as the total ticked over to the target of £150,000.So why did I do it? There's a number of reasons, one of them being that my mother regrets that they never took us to more concerts when we were younger. The reason? They were too expensive. So here was the perfect chance for my family and myself to see one of the world's biggest bands in a teeny-tiny venue.The other reasons? Like many people, I'm on a low wage so concert tickets are seen as a luxury. When you couple in travel, food, merchandise, and possibly accommodation, you're looking at hundreds of pounds.For some reason, despite being in the centre of the country, Birmingham is often overlooked by the bigger bands. Yes, we have some of the country's largest festivals all within driving distance but if you're not a festival person (like myself) then you often feel left out. Birmingham is also the closest city to me and I'd love to go and support their local economy instead of having to go to London or Manchester (Not that I don't like London and Manchester but Birmingham does have some redeeming qualities!).Often I'm at work and wind up missing out on tickets, leaving me at the mercy of the secondary ticket market. And I'd rather support the band than lining the pockets of the ticket touts. Foo Fighters fans in the US tragically got a taste of this when tickets to two shows (Wrigley Field for next year and a Nashville show last night) were sold in a record amount of time. Many of them, including non-transferable ones for the Nashville show, were being sold for astronomical amounts on secondary sites (ones for Nashville were originally on sale for $20 and wound up going for hundreds more). The band had the scalped tickets for the Nashville show cancelled and resold at their original value.And the most important reason I'm supporting this – the ticket touts. I know that people will talk about capitalism and supply and demand, but why should that come at the cost of the fans? Why should the fans have to pay hundreds and thousands of pounds over the odds for seats? Seats which sometimes turn out to be fake, even when they've come from one of the reputable secondary resellers? And why should the touts be allowed to hoover up the majority of the tickets for an event? Ticketmaster USA have admitted that 90% of their daily hits come through botnets hoovering up tickets for the secondary market. With those kinds of numbers, what chance do fans have of buying fairly priced tickets? Under UK law, the use of botnets is illegal.What I thought had started as a storm in a teacup has now become a perfect storm with foofightersuk.com and Birmingham at its eye. Radio stations are asking the band if they'll play the show. Fans across the Atlantic are approaching the band and flying banners in support of the fan-funded show at shows. It's a crazy idea and one that I'm so proud to be supporting. Knowing that there's others out there like myself makes me feel so much better. It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in and, while I don't think art should be free (Heck, part of my income comes from writing) I do think it should be fairly priced and affordable. And it most certainly shouldn't come at the cost of either the artists or the fans.
Will this show happen? Well, we'll find out some time around November 17th. PART 2 - THE VICTIMS
In the wake of the original No More Touts post, I had an email from one of my friends who bought tickets to the Foo Fighters Halloween show in Nashville from a secondary seller. She had the unfortunate experience of not knowing that the scalped tickets had been cancelled, leaving her out on the street after a 200+ mile journey. While some people received phone calls to say that their tickets had been cancelled, my friend wasn't so lucky. She agreed to talk to me for this blog.- How much were the original tickets and how much did you pay for them from Ticketnetwork? Originally, $20 plus fees, so maybe $30. I paid $221.40 through TicketNetwork- How far did you travel to the show? 3 1/2 hour drive, roughly 210 miles each way- When did you find out the tickets had been cancelled? I had heard rumors that they had been cancelled, and even called the Ryman, but didn't know for sure until the night of the show, when I saw on a sign that no tickets bought with gift cards would be honored.- How large of a group were left without tickets? Not sure. I know several of us who were in line had gotten "taken". - Did you try getting tickets through Ticketmaster? Yes, I tried for 35 minutes straight, using 2 computers and a cell phone when they went on sale. I had even pre-registered and had my info ready. I pulled up the Ticketmaster site at least an hour early, in case I got stuck in waiting room hell (like with Wrigley)- How do you feel in the wake of all of this? Like an idiot. Very disappointed. I wanted to see these guys SO BAD (have yet to see them live). Since I really do nothing else, going to the occasional concert would be awesome.- Anything else you want to add? Yes. #1 Originally, I was very happy when I found out that I could get tix online, because I don't have anyone in Nashville who could go get in line for me. I even considered driving to the box office myself but it wasn't feasible. #2 I think that those of us who got bad tickets should've been given preference to buy a real ticket. I don't have a smart phone so I didn't know that the invalid tickets had been resold. Somebody got into the Ryman and sat in the seat I bought on the 29th. #3 I don't know what the answer to this clusterfuck is but SOMETHING needs to be done! I appreciate the Foos (obviously) trying to do something about it, though. #4 I have learned my lesson - unless I can get tix through the "approved" vendor, I'm not going. I can't afford to pay outrageous prices. As much as I love these guys, rent has to be paid, electric needs to be kept on and the cats need food. ~~~Recent reports show that the Rugby World Cup has suffered the same fate as many other high profile events. Despite the tickets being allocated through a lottery, they’re still turning up on secondary ticketing sites, sometimes for more than 2500% above face value. On top of that, despite laws in many US states restricting ticket scalping, Missouri actually turned against the tide and repelled their anti-ticketscalping laws back in 2007. The US secondary ticket market is estimated to be worth $5,000,000,000 annually and is forecast to grow by 12 percent every year. Things in the UK aren't looking any better. In a House of Commons document dated January 2014, Parliament decided not to legislate the secondary ticket market, instead asking that it continues to self-regulate. (PDF download: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04715.pdf)Which is why the No More Touts campaign needed to be done. When the original ticket sellers and MP's are calling for regulations, you know it's getting serious.
How can you help? There's a petition running to get government to take another look at regulating the secondary ticket market. You can sign it here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470 PART 3 - THE MUSICIANS
I decided to write a follow on from the No More Touts post I wrote a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who's read and shared it! I never realised it would ever go that far!
In the last post, we were talking about ticket touts and the fan-funded show from the perspective of the fans. We also talked about those who'd been the victims of ticket scalpers. I come from a musical family. It's not unusual to find jam sessions happening in our house. We have a small home studio. Our garage is holds the legacy that my parents started so many years ago. Cases packed with coiled cables stand beside tool boxes. Beneath a desk is a crate filled drum stands. A book case has become a leaning post for a guitar. Packets of strings and drumsticks are piled in a corner. The studio is so small that we've recorded drummers in bathrooms, singers in wardrobes, and guitarists out in the garden.
We call it "organised chaos".I rounded up a few of the passing musicians for beer and a chat about the secondary ticket market.
As musicians who are often paid to play shows, what are your views on ticket touts?
Ticket touts are pushing out the fans that have less money, turning concerts into exclusive events that only those with a higher percentage of disposable income can afford. Besides, why should fans pay over the odds for tickets that were cheap enough in the first place? Cheaper tickets mean that there are more people at a show. This is good for smaller and newer bands, especially if they’re the opener for a larger band.
Bands are being locked out of the industry because of the secondary market. Some of us also believe that touts are killing the music industry in some areas. The touts tend to target popular bands (supply and demand). Some bands may only visit a few cities and part of their reasoning for that may be because of the secondary market. They know that the more shows they play equals more tickets going to the secondary market. And bands have costs too. We have travel, food, accommodation, crew that we have to pay. Our costs aren’t anywhere near that of some of the larger bands but, as you know, the bigger the band the more overheads they’ve got to cover. Yes, if a show sells out, the band will get paid. But what happens if a venue is only filled to a fraction of its capacity? A lot of a band’s wages comes from merchandise. And even if the venue is full what happens if the majority of those people have bought their tickets through secondary sellers at an inflated cost? They now have less money to spend on the artist they’ve come to support.
This may sound greedy on the part of musicians, but we think that many people would prefer to be supporting the artists rather than the ticket touts making hundreds of pounds more for a ticket that may have originally only cost £40. We also want to see as many of you as possible at the shows, something that won’t happen if you’re being held to ransom by ticket touts. As musicians and concert goers ourselves, we're just as angry as you are. At the end of the day, we’re here for you. Our job is to make you happy and give you a good night out. And if you’re happy, then we’re happy!
~~~
Ticketmaster has admitted that between a fifth and ninety percent of daily ticket sales come from botnets. While the use of botnets is banned in the UK under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, there's nothing to stop the secondary ticket sellers from using human power to grab hundreds of tickets using multiple credit cards and addresses. This was highlighted in Channel 4's Dispatches from 2012 (The Great Ticket Scandal). Also highlighted in the documentary were a number of other ways that the secondary ticket sellers are able to get hold of tickets. This includes the promoters, venues, and others within the industry.
Secondary ticketing regulations by country can be found on Wikipedia (not the best source, I know!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_resale PART 4 - THE GOVERNMENT
It seems quite fitting to be talking about the government the day after Bonfire Night. Why won’t the government legislate the secondary ticket market? There could be a number of reasons why the government won’t bring in regulations. The ones I’ve come up with are pure speculation and based on my own observations.It could be that the government doesn’t believe regulation of the secondary ticket market is important enough. The idea has been debated several times in parliament and, in 2006, legislation surrounding the reselling of football and Olympic tickets was put into place. However, the government didn’t see other ticketed events in the same light.They also may believe that it’s not that serious a crime to warrant legislation.Government may believe that the secondary market already regulates itself enough. STAR (Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers) is a body formed within the UK to provide self-regulation within the theatre and event ticketing sales industry. Their aim to ensure fairness and openness in the sale of event tickets. Members are required to comply with a code of practice. Along with the guarantees that websites provide, as well as making it illegal for street touts to operate without a license, government may believe that they’ve already done enough and that little more can be done.However, these ideas don’t target the illegal sellers, many of whom operate through legal channels (ebay, Stubhub etc) or who set up ticketing websites for single events (as was seen with recent Take That and One Direction concerts. Love Money offers advice on spotting fake ticket websites.). The technology is in place to be able to find and track these people.The legal secondary ticket market is worth an estimated £2,000,000,000 a year and growing, which means the government will see some of that in taxes.The government could also see it as not their responsibility to regulate the secondary market. It could be that the government want the market themselves to bring in the control measures that are needed (i.e. photo ID to be shown at entry to an event). However, unscrupulous sellers can easily bypass some of these control measures (There’s already been reports of people reselling multiple copies of a pair of PDF tickets to an ALT-J concert, meaning that once one pair had been scanned everyone else was left outside and out of pocket). There is a call for photos to be printed on tickets, something that has worked well for Glastonbury. Measures would have to be put in place for people who found themselves unable to attend. Again, the technology is in place to do this.BBC News on how ticket scams are costing fans millions every year.
PART 5 - MY FINAL WORDS
Okay, one last post before November 17th.* This is me talking. No more statistics, no more news stories, no more analysing. This is just you and me chatting over a beer.A few days ago, I wrote a post that I thought might interest some of the few people who pass by this site. Never in a million years did I think that those words would go as crazy as they did. For those not in the know, cycle back to November 1st and read a post titled No More Touts. You see, I wrote that original post out of anger. I'd seen some of the negativity that surrounded the whole No More Touts campaign. And it stung. Really, really stung. Heck, on September 19th 2014, I was an outsider looking in, a passing music lover who'd seen a good idea and decided to support it. The fact that the idea spoke to me on so many levels certainly helped. And here were people picking apart what was being done. To see so much spite and negativity levelled towards people who were doing something to change the industry really hurt me. Yet I know from experience that you can't reason with haters. On top of that, one of my pet hates is to see hatred thrown at people who are just trying to do some good in a world that's already ravaged by darkness (I'm also a firm believer in "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".).In the original post, I mentioned that I'd been a part of the “Rage for Christmas #1” campaign. Like the No More Touts one, it was a grass roots effort that took off. Even if the song hadn't reached number one and even if the band hadn't played the show (again, they were under no obligation to do so but did it out of the goodness of their hearts) the Rage campaign did something amazing.It raised over £162,000for Shelter, the UK's homeless charity. Even now people still donate in the Rage campaign's name.I noticed, while reading up on the No More Touts campaign, that the people behind it also support a charity (I've also noticed they've been writing about this too in the past few days. Hi, guys!). Given to Live makes it possible for people who are vulnerable or feel excluded to go to live music events. So far, they've had a lot of success, including the Invictus Games back in September.So, if you burrow a little deeper and don't take everything at face value, you discover a deeper, more beautiful meaning to this. Even if the band don't play, this campaign has taken the issue of ticket touts to some of the biggest powers in the music industry. People are sitting up and listening. It's making headline news again and again. People know that there's something going on and revolutions don't start overnight. Most of all it's doing something good by giving others the chance to experience what many of us take for granted.The music connects us, let's not forget that. We're all coming from nothing here and, through this, the world can be changed for the better.And I've met a bunch of awesome and very cool people through it!“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” -John Bingham *Maybe. There may be more.
Will this show happen? Well, we'll find out some time around November 17th. PART 2 - THE VICTIMS
In the wake of the original No More Touts post, I had an email from one of my friends who bought tickets to the Foo Fighters Halloween show in Nashville from a secondary seller. She had the unfortunate experience of not knowing that the scalped tickets had been cancelled, leaving her out on the street after a 200+ mile journey. While some people received phone calls to say that their tickets had been cancelled, my friend wasn't so lucky. She agreed to talk to me for this blog.- How much were the original tickets and how much did you pay for them from Ticketnetwork? Originally, $20 plus fees, so maybe $30. I paid $221.40 through TicketNetwork- How far did you travel to the show? 3 1/2 hour drive, roughly 210 miles each way- When did you find out the tickets had been cancelled? I had heard rumors that they had been cancelled, and even called the Ryman, but didn't know for sure until the night of the show, when I saw on a sign that no tickets bought with gift cards would be honored.- How large of a group were left without tickets? Not sure. I know several of us who were in line had gotten "taken". - Did you try getting tickets through Ticketmaster? Yes, I tried for 35 minutes straight, using 2 computers and a cell phone when they went on sale. I had even pre-registered and had my info ready. I pulled up the Ticketmaster site at least an hour early, in case I got stuck in waiting room hell (like with Wrigley)- How do you feel in the wake of all of this? Like an idiot. Very disappointed. I wanted to see these guys SO BAD (have yet to see them live). Since I really do nothing else, going to the occasional concert would be awesome.- Anything else you want to add? Yes. #1 Originally, I was very happy when I found out that I could get tix online, because I don't have anyone in Nashville who could go get in line for me. I even considered driving to the box office myself but it wasn't feasible. #2 I think that those of us who got bad tickets should've been given preference to buy a real ticket. I don't have a smart phone so I didn't know that the invalid tickets had been resold. Somebody got into the Ryman and sat in the seat I bought on the 29th. #3 I don't know what the answer to this clusterfuck is but SOMETHING needs to be done! I appreciate the Foos (obviously) trying to do something about it, though. #4 I have learned my lesson - unless I can get tix through the "approved" vendor, I'm not going. I can't afford to pay outrageous prices. As much as I love these guys, rent has to be paid, electric needs to be kept on and the cats need food. ~~~Recent reports show that the Rugby World Cup has suffered the same fate as many other high profile events. Despite the tickets being allocated through a lottery, they’re still turning up on secondary ticketing sites, sometimes for more than 2500% above face value. On top of that, despite laws in many US states restricting ticket scalping, Missouri actually turned against the tide and repelled their anti-ticketscalping laws back in 2007. The US secondary ticket market is estimated to be worth $5,000,000,000 annually and is forecast to grow by 12 percent every year. Things in the UK aren't looking any better. In a House of Commons document dated January 2014, Parliament decided not to legislate the secondary ticket market, instead asking that it continues to self-regulate. (PDF download: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04715.pdf)Which is why the No More Touts campaign needed to be done. When the original ticket sellers and MP's are calling for regulations, you know it's getting serious.
How can you help? There's a petition running to get government to take another look at regulating the secondary ticket market. You can sign it here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70470 PART 3 - THE MUSICIANS
I decided to write a follow on from the No More Touts post I wrote a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who's read and shared it! I never realised it would ever go that far!
In the last post, we were talking about ticket touts and the fan-funded show from the perspective of the fans. We also talked about those who'd been the victims of ticket scalpers. I come from a musical family. It's not unusual to find jam sessions happening in our house. We have a small home studio. Our garage is holds the legacy that my parents started so many years ago. Cases packed with coiled cables stand beside tool boxes. Beneath a desk is a crate filled drum stands. A book case has become a leaning post for a guitar. Packets of strings and drumsticks are piled in a corner. The studio is so small that we've recorded drummers in bathrooms, singers in wardrobes, and guitarists out in the garden.
We call it "organised chaos".I rounded up a few of the passing musicians for beer and a chat about the secondary ticket market.As musicians who are often paid to play shows, what are your views on ticket touts?
Ticket touts are pushing out the fans that have less money, turning concerts into exclusive events that only those with a higher percentage of disposable income can afford. Besides, why should fans pay over the odds for tickets that were cheap enough in the first place? Cheaper tickets mean that there are more people at a show. This is good for smaller and newer bands, especially if they’re the opener for a larger band.
Bands are being locked out of the industry because of the secondary market. Some of us also believe that touts are killing the music industry in some areas. The touts tend to target popular bands (supply and demand). Some bands may only visit a few cities and part of their reasoning for that may be because of the secondary market. They know that the more shows they play equals more tickets going to the secondary market. And bands have costs too. We have travel, food, accommodation, crew that we have to pay. Our costs aren’t anywhere near that of some of the larger bands but, as you know, the bigger the band the more overheads they’ve got to cover. Yes, if a show sells out, the band will get paid. But what happens if a venue is only filled to a fraction of its capacity? A lot of a band’s wages comes from merchandise. And even if the venue is full what happens if the majority of those people have bought their tickets through secondary sellers at an inflated cost? They now have less money to spend on the artist they’ve come to support.
This may sound greedy on the part of musicians, but we think that many people would prefer to be supporting the artists rather than the ticket touts making hundreds of pounds more for a ticket that may have originally only cost £40. We also want to see as many of you as possible at the shows, something that won’t happen if you’re being held to ransom by ticket touts. As musicians and concert goers ourselves, we're just as angry as you are. At the end of the day, we’re here for you. Our job is to make you happy and give you a good night out. And if you’re happy, then we’re happy!
~~~
Ticketmaster has admitted that between a fifth and ninety percent of daily ticket sales come from botnets. While the use of botnets is banned in the UK under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, there's nothing to stop the secondary ticket sellers from using human power to grab hundreds of tickets using multiple credit cards and addresses. This was highlighted in Channel 4's Dispatches from 2012 (The Great Ticket Scandal). Also highlighted in the documentary were a number of other ways that the secondary ticket sellers are able to get hold of tickets. This includes the promoters, venues, and others within the industry.
Secondary ticketing regulations by country can be found on Wikipedia (not the best source, I know!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_resale PART 4 - THE GOVERNMENT
It seems quite fitting to be talking about the government the day after Bonfire Night. Why won’t the government legislate the secondary ticket market? There could be a number of reasons why the government won’t bring in regulations. The ones I’ve come up with are pure speculation and based on my own observations.It could be that the government doesn’t believe regulation of the secondary ticket market is important enough. The idea has been debated several times in parliament and, in 2006, legislation surrounding the reselling of football and Olympic tickets was put into place. However, the government didn’t see other ticketed events in the same light.They also may believe that it’s not that serious a crime to warrant legislation.Government may believe that the secondary market already regulates itself enough. STAR (Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers) is a body formed within the UK to provide self-regulation within the theatre and event ticketing sales industry. Their aim to ensure fairness and openness in the sale of event tickets. Members are required to comply with a code of practice. Along with the guarantees that websites provide, as well as making it illegal for street touts to operate without a license, government may believe that they’ve already done enough and that little more can be done.However, these ideas don’t target the illegal sellers, many of whom operate through legal channels (ebay, Stubhub etc) or who set up ticketing websites for single events (as was seen with recent Take That and One Direction concerts. Love Money offers advice on spotting fake ticket websites.). The technology is in place to be able to find and track these people.The legal secondary ticket market is worth an estimated £2,000,000,000 a year and growing, which means the government will see some of that in taxes.The government could also see it as not their responsibility to regulate the secondary market. It could be that the government want the market themselves to bring in the control measures that are needed (i.e. photo ID to be shown at entry to an event). However, unscrupulous sellers can easily bypass some of these control measures (There’s already been reports of people reselling multiple copies of a pair of PDF tickets to an ALT-J concert, meaning that once one pair had been scanned everyone else was left outside and out of pocket). There is a call for photos to be printed on tickets, something that has worked well for Glastonbury. Measures would have to be put in place for people who found themselves unable to attend. Again, the technology is in place to do this.BBC News on how ticket scams are costing fans millions every year.
PART 5 - MY FINAL WORDS
Okay, one last post before November 17th.* This is me talking. No more statistics, no more news stories, no more analysing. This is just you and me chatting over a beer.A few days ago, I wrote a post that I thought might interest some of the few people who pass by this site. Never in a million years did I think that those words would go as crazy as they did. For those not in the know, cycle back to November 1st and read a post titled No More Touts. You see, I wrote that original post out of anger. I'd seen some of the negativity that surrounded the whole No More Touts campaign. And it stung. Really, really stung. Heck, on September 19th 2014, I was an outsider looking in, a passing music lover who'd seen a good idea and decided to support it. The fact that the idea spoke to me on so many levels certainly helped. And here were people picking apart what was being done. To see so much spite and negativity levelled towards people who were doing something to change the industry really hurt me. Yet I know from experience that you can't reason with haters. On top of that, one of my pet hates is to see hatred thrown at people who are just trying to do some good in a world that's already ravaged by darkness (I'm also a firm believer in "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".).In the original post, I mentioned that I'd been a part of the “Rage for Christmas #1” campaign. Like the No More Touts one, it was a grass roots effort that took off. Even if the song hadn't reached number one and even if the band hadn't played the show (again, they were under no obligation to do so but did it out of the goodness of their hearts) the Rage campaign did something amazing.It raised over £162,000for Shelter, the UK's homeless charity. Even now people still donate in the Rage campaign's name.I noticed, while reading up on the No More Touts campaign, that the people behind it also support a charity (I've also noticed they've been writing about this too in the past few days. Hi, guys!). Given to Live makes it possible for people who are vulnerable or feel excluded to go to live music events. So far, they've had a lot of success, including the Invictus Games back in September.So, if you burrow a little deeper and don't take everything at face value, you discover a deeper, more beautiful meaning to this. Even if the band don't play, this campaign has taken the issue of ticket touts to some of the biggest powers in the music industry. People are sitting up and listening. It's making headline news again and again. People know that there's something going on and revolutions don't start overnight. Most of all it's doing something good by giving others the chance to experience what many of us take for granted.The music connects us, let's not forget that. We're all coming from nothing here and, through this, the world can be changed for the better.And I've met a bunch of awesome and very cool people through it!“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” -John Bingham *Maybe. There may be more.
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