Noah Kahan is once again lending his voice to ticketing reform in the U.S.
On Thursday (July 16), Massachusetts governor Maura Healey announced that she is introducing An Act Relative to Closing the Great Divide between Ticket Prices and Affordability, or The Great Divide Act, named after Kahan’s 2026 Billboard 200 No. 1 album The Great Divide. The proposed bill would cap resale prices of concert tickets at 110% of the price of the face value of the original ticket. It would also limit the service fees and charges that can be imposed by secondary ticketing platforms for both sporting and non-sporting events to no more than 10% of the total price of the ticket for resale.
“Far too many Massachusetts residents have experienced the pain of being excited to buy tickets to see their favorite singer or sports team, only to realize that resale prices and fees have driven up the cost to outrageous levels,” said Governor Healey in a statement. “Or how about when you do purchase tickets from a reseller, only to get to the venue to realize the seller never actually transfers them to you? Enough is enough. We are taking action to lower ticket resale prices so Massachusetts fans can better afford to see their favorite performer or team.”
Kahan, who recently made history as the first artist ever to headline four consecutive sold-out shows at Fenway Park in Boston, virtually joined Healey’s press conference to announce the bill.
“I heard about what you’re announcing today, and I just wanted to let you know how excited I am about it,” Kahan said via video. “The artist community and fans will greatly benefit from limiting ticket scalping and the sales of speculative tickets. I love my fans and want to protect them however I can. Artists alone could not tackle the market manipulation of secondary resellers. So, thank you so much for making this a priority in Massachusetts.”
Kahan was also a vocal advocate for the passage of a similar bill in his home state of Vermont. That state’s governor, Phil Scott, signed a resale cap bill into law at the end of May, making it the second state in the country to pass such legislation following Maine. More than 20 other states have introduced ticketing consumer protection bills this year, and just this week, the Washington, D.C. Council passed the RESALE Act, which would regulate the ticketing market in the nation’s capital.
Under Governor Healey’s proposal, the resale cap would apply to all events unless an artist or venue explicitly authorizes a higher resale cap through a written agreement. The act would also ban the sale of speculative tickets (the practice of resellers listing tickets they don’t actually possess) and prohibit deceptive resale websites that falsely suggest they’re affiliated with artists or venues.
The Massachusetts bill will now move through the legislative process, where it will be considered by the state’s House and Senate before it can become law.
