How Does The Ticket Tout Ban Impact Independent Music Events?

Finally, some good news.

This week, the UK government announced they are banning ticket resale above face value. No more £4,442 Oasis tickets. No more Cyprus-based touts listing thousands of tickets they might not even have. No more fans getting priced out by bots and professional scalpers.

It is a massive win. But if you are an independent artist or operate a grassroots venue, this fight was never really about you in the first place.

The Big Wins

Let’s be clear about what is changing.

The ban is total. Ministers initially considered allowing resale at 30% above face value, but instead they went further. Anything above face value is now illegal. Resale platforms like Viagogo and StubHub can still charge service fees, but those fees will be capped to prevent workarounds.

The enforcement has teeth. The Competition and Markets Authority will police this, and resale platforms are legally liable if sellers on their site break the law. No licensing system is needed and there are no loopholes for social media sales. You break the rules, you face consequences.

The impact is immediate. StubHub Holdings shares dropped 10% the moment this news broke, which tells you how seriously the secondary ticketing industry is taking this.

According to Virgin O2’s analysis, ticket touts were costing UK consumers £145 million a year. That money is now staying in the pockets of fans. Artists like Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and Radiohead fought hard for this, and they won.

This is genuinely great news for fans of arena tours and major events.

But Here Is The Problem

When was the last time you saw a tout buying up tickets for a 150-capacity venue in Hull?

The truth is that ticket touting overwhelmingly affects mainstream events such as stadium tours, major festivals, and sold-out arena shows. It affects the kind of events where demand massively outstrips supply and where bots can hoover up thousands of tickets in seconds.

For independent artists playing grassroots venues, this was never your biggest problem.

Your problems look more like this:

84% of UK independent artists cannot afford to tour in 2025. Not because of touts, but because the economics of touring are fundamentally broken.

The UK lost one grassroots venue every two weeks in 2024. Not because of resale platforms, but because 43.8% of venues operated at a loss despite contributing £526 million to the economy.

Cities like Bath, Cambridge, Hull, and York have been completely wiped off the touring map since 1994. Not because of scalpers, but because the infrastructure that supported touring has collapsed.

Think about it. When Little Simz had to cancel her entire US tour because doing so would leave her in a "huge deficit" despite her critical acclaim, touts were not the issue. When English Teacher—a band that just won the Mercury Prize—reveals they have yet to turn a profit from touring, they are not talking about ticket resale.

The Real Discovery Crisis

Here is what does not get talked about enough. Even when venues are still standing and artists can afford to tour, getting people through the door is brutally hard.

A recent survey found that 54% of musicians cited "getting music heard" as their most significant challenge. Two-thirds believe it is becoming harder to be an independent musician.

The reasons are stark.

Oversaturation. Thousands of new tracks drop daily. How does an independent artist in Sheffield compete for attention?

Algorithmic bias. Platforms prioritise acts with bigger budgets or existing followings. If you are not already big, good luck breaking through.

Discovery is broken. Finding gigs that match your taste means scrolling through Songkick past dozens of acts you have never heard of, clicking through for minimal info, jumping to Spotify to hear them, then back to find ticket prices. By the time you have done all that, the moment is gone.

And that is assuming the gig was even listed online. Many free gigs and smaller shows simply do not appear on major platforms. If you are not in London, Manchester, or Glasgow, good luck finding much at all.

A Hull venue owner summed it up perfectly when they noted that it is the buzzy industry artists breaking through that they struggle with, and it is becoming more and more prevalent.

This Is Why Scenebud Exists

Don't get us wrong. The ticket touting ban is a genuine victory for fairness in live music. Fans shouldn't be exploited by professional scalpers. That £145 million staying in consumers' pockets is real money that can go toward seeing more live music.

But for the independent music ecosystem, the fight is not about touts. It is about survival.

It is about grassroots venues closing at a rate of one every two weeks. It is about talented artists giving up because they can’t afford to tour. It is about fans in Hull, Sheffield, and Dundee missing out on amazing gigs because discovery is broken.

This is exactly what we built Scenebud to solve.

We’re not naive enough to think a platform can fix the cost-of-living crisis, reverse Brexit touring complications, or force streaming platforms to pay fairly. But we can make a meaningful dent in discovery and promotion—the thing independent artists and venues tell us is their biggest challenge.

Right now, promoting gigs as an independent artist or small venue means competing with acts that have PR budgets bigger than your tour budget, hoping social media algorithms don’t bury your posts, and watching potential fans scroll past because they can’t easily hear your music or find basic info.

Scenebud changes this:

• Discovery that actually works. Genre tags that mean something. Proper venue filtering. Regional focus so Sheffield and Dundee get the same love as London.
• Everything in one place. Hear the music, see the show details, buy tickets. No jumping between five apps and websites.
• A level playing field. Your gig gets promoted based on relevance to fans, not the size of your marketing budget.
• Fair pricing. We’ll always be free to promote and discover music, with transparent, fair commissions that support the independent music community.

Think of us as Bandcamp for live events. A place where independent artists can promote their gigs on their own terms, where fans can actually discover new music in their area, and where grassroots venues get the visibility they deserve.

Two Wins Are Better Than One

The ticket touting ban protects fans from exploitation at major events. That’s important and we celebrate it.

But independent music needs more than protection from touts. It needs platforms that champion grassroots venues, support emerging artists, and make discovery work for everyone—not just acts that can afford PR teams and marketing budgets.

Because right now, talented artists are giving up. Vital venues are closing. And music fans are missing out on the bands they’d love if they could only find them.

The government just solved one problem. We’re working on the other.

Are you an artist, venue, or promoter struggling to reach fans? Get in touch—we’d love to hear your story and get your shows on Scenebud.