AAP

No Mickey Mouse show, Spears warned

AAP November 6, 2009, 6:29 pm
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Pop stars such as Britney Spears should be forced to alert fans if they intend on miming throughout their shows, a politician says.

The US singer will perform 15 concerts in Australia, starting in Perth on Friday, followed by Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane before finishing in Adelaide on November 29.

Reports she will lip-sync during many of the concerts has prompted debate on whether there should be disclaimers on tickets advising consumers whether a concert has been pre-recorded.

NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge says concert-goers deserve to be told if musicians are going to sing live before forking out hundreds of dollars for a ticket.

She's proposing disclaimers be printed on tickets and promotional material to inform consumers whether a concert will be pre-recorded and mimed, or performed live.

Ms Judge says she has nothing against Spears, but public debate on the issue is important for the protection of both consumers and artists, who work hard at live performances.

"I think it's hugely important that we get the balance right because what it's about is making sure that our artists' interests are protected ... that our consumers' interests are also protected," Ms Judge told reporters.

"It's about creating that framework so that there is transparency, so that when our consumers make a choice, that that is an informed choice."

Ms Judge said although many Spears fans were aware of the singer's style, some consumers may be misled when purchasing tickets to what they believe will be a live performance.

"There could have been some instances where people actually go and purchase a ticket thinking that they're going to have a live performance ... for some people that means that everything is live, it's fresh, it happens instantaneously, it's not something that's been pre-recorded."

"You want to make sure that they're actually paying for what they think they're getting."

Admitting to having been an amateur and "perhaps very bad musician in the past", Ms Judge said that artists who put in the work to perform live are currently being disadvantaged.

"If you have musicians and artists that are going that extra yard to do a live performance and they're out there competing with artists that perhaps aren't doing that, and yet people think that they're doing that, well in a way that's undermining the others that are out there competing for the same audiences."

Ms Judge says she will raise the issue with her counterparts in other states and territories at the next consumer protection ministerial council meeting in December.

Opposition frontbencher Anthony Roberts said the government should be focused on the real issues facing NSW.

"This week we've seen trains break down on the Sydney Harbour Bridge leaving people to swelter in 37 degree heat, we've had revelations of the state's poor health record, and ongoing leadership speculation, yet all the state Labor government wants to talk about is lip-syncing at concerts," Mr Roberts said in a statement.

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