“Concert-industry insiders routinely engage in coordinated efforts to sell tickets to the public at inflated prices, while disguising their origin.”

“Concert promoter AEG Live is fighting with a ticket-selling agent that it alleges was trying to scalp huge numbers of tickets to Michael Jackson’s run of 50 concerts in London.”

“Similar arrangements came under scrutiny last week, after senior executives of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal they had helped artists and their managers sell their own concert tickets at higher-than-normal prices in an online marketplace.” (Wall Street Journal)

Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor recently blogged about scalping and high ticket prices.

He says: “there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So…

“Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?”

Nelly Furtado has launched her own indie label Nelstar in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels. Furtado says “I also think that it’s best to start off an indie. When you are a new band and you sign to a major, you get thrown to the fire. Plus, I always secretly wanted to be an indie artist. When I was a teenager, I loved Ani DiFranco and hoped I could do something like that. A major turned out to be my destiny, but I’m enjoying reconnecting with the indie world.” Her first signing is The Toronto-based electro-dance band Fritz Helder & the Phantoms – two members are her back up dancers.

Check out the rock/funk Cage The Elephant. The band was formed by brothers Matt and Brad Schultz in Bowling Green, Kentucky. “They toured extensively in the States and visited Britain to support Foals and The Subways, eventually securing themselves a UK record deal with Relentless.” KROQ (Los Angles) just started playing ‘Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked’ from their debut record which was recorded in 10 days. They will be performing at SXSW March 21st at Antone’s.

Juke Kartel is a rock band from Melbourne, Australia and became the first unsigned band to play the MTV Awards in Australia. Frontman Toby Rand was a finalist on Rockstar Supernova. The band worked on their debut album, Nowhere Left To Hide, at Seattle’s renowned London Bridge Studios with rock producer Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback). The band will performing tonight at The Roxy in Hollywood, California. For more information contact mail@hjm.com.au

“Robbie Williams, KT Tunstall and the members of Radiohead will join a group of high-profile musicians to protest at how badly they are treated by record companies and music streaming websites like YouTube.”

“Google, YouTube’s owner is a company that makes billions in profits; we think they should be paying artist royalties from the advertising revenue they make,” Billy Bragg told The Times. “A dispute like this illustrates the needs for the creation of the Featured Artists Coalition, so we have have a voice and the public understand that sites like Google should be paying for music.” (Times Online)

Think Youtube needs to fess up?