Off the record

DON'T PAY TOO MUCH FOR BRUCE

Thanks to the internet, ticket touting (sorry, "secondary ticketing") now stretches far beyond that angry cockney accosting you in the queue outside Brixton Academy. It's a £200 million a year industry, which is why a select committee of MPs felt the need to publish a report on it yesterday.

Deciding against a major shake-up, the report suggests a self-regulating middle ground between promoters such as Harvey Goldsmith (who has been calling for an outright ban on this "illegitimate profiteering") and the onward sellers, who raise astronomical sums for the tickets that laugh in the face of face value.

Last year the resale website Seatwave sold Take That tickets for an average of £124 (original price £25-£45), Barbra Streisand for £287 (£100) and tickets for Led Zeppelin's one-off reunion for an extraordinary average of £7,425 (£125).

These prices were set by individual sellers, not the site, which simply takes a cut of whatever is finally bid. Seatwave claims that 91 per cent of its customers have sold no more than 10 tickets last year, and that it's difficult to register under aliases - which indicates that it's not just professional touts doing the selling. We're all at it, a nation of touts, not seeing any harm in buying a couple of extra tickets and selling them on to subsidise our own night out.

It can distort the market, creating false demand which leads to unrealistic prices. I've been searching for two tickets for one of London's biggest upcoming shows, Bruce Springsteen's sets at the Emirates Stadium on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 May.

A pair of Saturday tickets can still be had at official site Ticketzone for £106.25, including a £4.75 booking fee and £1.75 postage. Even so, the cheapest pair of tickets on eBay are going for £203. At Seatwave, they're on sale for £230 including a whopping £33.50 "Seatwave processing fee", while at rival site Viagogo, it's £318.76 for two. Hopefully they haven't been sold because other people think those prices are as ludicrous as I do.

Viagogo chief executive Eric Baker claims not everyone is out for fast cash. "In fact last year, more than half of the hundreds of thousands of tickets sold on Viagogo were sold for face value or less. There are certain events, like Led Zeppelin, where people will pay high prices, but that's not true for the overall mix," he tells me.

And what of the urging by the select committee, and new music industry body the Resale Rights Society, to support the music business by giving it a cut from secondary sales? "We think that's as ridiculous as Ford getting a cut when you resell your car or JK Rowling profiting on a used Harry Potter book. Someone who's already been paid doesn't need to be paid twice."

But there's an important difference here. That ticket hasn't been used, and unlike cars or books, it's often worth more in the secondary market than it was in the first place.

Professional touts or not, it's naive to believe that everyone is selling on tickets simply because they find themselves unable to attend the performance; if this is purely about making money, it seems fair that the artists whose shows are in such demand be rewarded.

The most important thing is that gig-goers aren't ripped off, so for starters some of us need to stop the amateur touting, buying more than we need and selling them for profit. And those willing to pay far over the odds need more perspective. If the only way to see a show is to remortgage the house, it's probably better to stay at home.

CHIPS JUST GOT HOTTER

AN EARLY LISTEN TO...
Hot Chip
Made in the Dark (EMI)

They look like five postgraduate physics students yet London dance act Hot Chip find themselves in the enviable position of being major label EMI's top priority at the start of 2008.

Their second album, The Warning, earned a Mercury nomination and sold 110,000 copies in 2006 - four times as many as their first shifted. With a big push, this third could well sell four times as many again.

Released at the start of next month, it begins with an uncharacteristically frantic barrage of synths on Out at the Pictures and goes on to take in deafening rave bursts on Shake a Fist, old school house on Don't Dance and pure pop on new single Ready for the Floor.

Alexis Taylor's gentle voice, unsuitable on paper for dance music, as well as numerous midsong stylistic leaps, keep things deliciously oddball. With this tougher sound, when the geek sings, "Son, I've a good mind to take you outside" on Hold On, you almost believe him.

NEW ON THE NET

Brixton's Adele Adkins has already won a Critics' Choice Brit award and been voted most likely to succeed in the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll. Now she finally gets to underpin the hype with something solid, when her first single proper, Chasing Pavements, is released a week early in download stores on Monday. It's a powerful torch song that justifies all the Amy Winehouse comparisons.

The latest free album offer comes from a classical violinist, Tasmin Little, who hopes to reach beyond the buffs with "a completely free opportunity for people who may not have previously enjoyed any violin music". Be warned, though, www.tasminlittle.net seems to be struggling to cope with demand for The Naked Violin.

The word is that Sony BMG, home of Britney and Bob Dylan, is about to become the last of the major labels to start selling its downloads without digital rights management, which means they will play on any MP. player. However, it involves joining Sony's "Platinum MusicPass" service by going to a real Sony shop to buy a card first. In which case, why not just buy a CD while you're out?