A coalition of 16 New England musicians, including Noah Kahan, Aimee Mann, The Pixies, Goose and Dropkick Murphys, have written an open letter urging Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a bill capping the prices at which scalpers can resell concert tickets. The artists argue that live performance "should not be a luxury" and that resellers who contribute nothing to a show should not profit more than the artists, venues and crews who stage it. The push adds high-profile pressure behind legislation already backed by Governor Maura Healey, at a time when several US states are moving to tackle ticket touting.

The bill, named "The Great Divide" Act after Kahan's latest album, would cap resale prices at 110% of face value, limit fees charged by secondary ticketing sites, and ban "speculative ticketing", where brokers sell tickets they do not yet hold. Kahan has been especially outspoken on the issue, having also backed a similar law recently passed in Vermont, while the Massachusetts effort has additional support from groups including the Music Artist Coalition. Other states, including Maine, California, New York and Washington DC, have introduced or approved comparable resale price caps in the past year.