New national promoter and record label Crosstown Concerts has taken aim at secondary ticketing following its official launch.
The start-up, which has offices in Bristol and London, is a joint venture between long established promoters Paul Hutton and Conal Dodds, formerly of Metropolis Music, and Fraser Duffin. It hit the ground running earlier this month with a 30,000-capacity Massive Attack homecoming show on the Bristol Downs.
“First and foremost we are music fans, we are in this to promote quality concerts and events, and at the core of our business is working with artists from the beginning of their careers,” said Hutton. “The most important people to us are the general public, they pay our salaries by purchasing concert tickets, and for too long they have not been treated with the respect they deserve.”
The company has already announced shows by acts such as Pixies, Kano, Seasick Steve, M83, PJ Harvey, Super Furry Animals, Savages, Explosions In The Sky and Billy Talent.
“One of the key areas we will be tackling is secondary ticketing, which has a huge negative impact on the UK live music scene,” said Hutton. “We are committed to tackling the problems surrounding the resale of tickets and providing fans with better than ever live experiences.”
Part of this initiative sees Crosstown Concerts announce a partnership with leading independent ticketing and concert discovery platform Songkick as their primary ticketing and technology partner across all Crosstown events.
Partner Conal Dodds said: “Ultimately our priority is to promote great artists and give people memorable life experiences. We and Songkick are committed to doing our utmost to prevent the reselling of tickets for profit on secondary ticketing sites. We’re going to be bold and committed in our approach, and are looking forward to creating many unique moments for artists and their fans.”
Crosstown Recordings also launches this month with the first two EP’s confirmed by London guitar band Moses and Bristol singer/songwriter Keir. “ Paul and I share a life long dream of setting up our own label to bring forth exceptional new talent, and with both Moses and Keir we are thrilled to bring them to everyone’s attention – they are both really exciting new artists," added Dodds.
Pictured (L-R) : Paul Hutton, Conal Dodds and Fraser Duffin.
