You Me At Six's Josh Franceschi: Ticketing should be a fair playing field

You Me At Six singer, Josh Franceschi, has called for online ticketing to be a "fair playing field".

He told Newsbeat he's fed up with music fans paying "over the odds" because of systems set up by ticket touts.

Josh is backing an MP's plan to criminalise so-called botnets - that's the software which buys up tickets online to then be resold for a profit.

"Everyone should be able to have the same chance to buy tickets at the price they were intended to."

Josh spoke to Newsbeat just before he personally started selling tickets for an upcoming You Me At Six gig.

"We're playing a very intimate show at Dingwalls in London and we've already seen tickets on websites for triple the amount they were supposed to be.

"They're [ticket touts] making money out of real genuine fans of music. For me, genuine fans of music have given me the chance to go off and see the world.

"This is for people who want to be in live music situations and they should not be getting ripped off in the process."

His comments come as the government is facing growing pressure to be stricter on touting, with some suggesting consumer rights laws are being broken on a regular basis.

Prime Minister Theresa May said she was looking at ways to address the use of ticket-resale websites by professional touts at the expense of fans.

As part of that, the government is set to consider a proposal that would make it illegal to use the computer software which harvests online tickets.

Nigel Adams, a Conservative MP, has put forward a change to the Digital Economy Bill that could see jail time for people found using botnets.

The offence, which is based on laws introduced in New York, would carry a maximum prison sentence of 51 weeks, a fine of up to £5,000 or both.

Mr Adams told Newsbeat: "Music fans are being fleeced on an industrial scale by touts who buy up tickets and then resell them at massively inflated prices on secondary ticket sites.

"They often use computer software to get to the tickets before the genuine music fan and I want to put a stop to this rip off activity.

"That's why I'm trying to amend the law to make the use of computer software, which snaps up large numbers of tickets for resale, an offence.

Josh Franceschi agrees with Nigel Adams but thinks it shouldn't be an issue at all.

Speaking ahead of the Dr. Marten's Stand For Something tour he suggested: "If it [ticket re-sale through bots] wasn't there in the first place then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

"We're not pinpointing anyone in particular - the issue as a whole is too big to be ignored."

Newsbeat has contacted several major ticketing sites for a comment on the issue.

Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat