California’s AB 1349 Catches the Ire of Groups Who Supported It

A California bill that enjoyed the support of indie venues and music industry groups now faces many of those same groups urging lawmakers to kill it.

California’s AB 1349, a bill that would ban speculative ticketing, introduce anti-bot measures, ban bogus ticket-selling sites, and more, is now facing opposition from many of the same industry groups that initially supported it. The bill is heading into the final day of the legislature with newly added language that specifically protects some primary ticketing market holdbacks.

Introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, Assembly Bill 1349 is due for final consideration this week after it was amended late on Friday instead of taking an expected floor vote. These changes create explicit protections for tickets withheld by rights holders and venue operators, as well as a particularly broad set of protections enabling California professional sports organizations to withhold and manage ticket inventory for business purposes.

Now, those provisions accompany a core feature of the bill that restricts unaffiliated sellers from advertising or marketing tickets they do not yet possess (speculative tickets) nor have authorization to sell.

In response, the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and a coalition of 28 music, venue, and consumer organizations are calling on both senators and assembly members to vote against the legislation. It’s a complete 180 for NIVA, which said in March that it was “proud to help architect” the bill and its companion legislation, AB 1720. Together, NIVA initially described the bills as a significant step forward for the music industry and a potential national model for ticketing regulation.

NIVA’s reversal in stance comes after AB 1720, which would have enacted a price cap on resale tickets of no more than 10% above face value, was held in the Senate committee on August 13 and failed to advance.

California’s independent stages are united alongside a broad coalition of music industry advocates, labor unions, and community leaders dedicated to protecting artists, fans, and stages. These organizations include the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), Artist Rights Alliance, Fan Alliance, National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), the Recording Academy, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and SAG-AFTRA.

At its core, legislation designed to protect the live music industry is increasingly being warped by lobbyists to benefit the primary ticketing market. To that end, StubHub spent as much as $2.6 million in California alone to alter the legislation—reportedly more than Chevron, Verizon, AT&T, and OpenAI during the same quarter.