Ticketing company Skiddle has penned an “open letter to the music industry”, in which it says it is “disgusted” at some of the applicants for the Cultural Recovery Fund.

The letter, attributed to ‘Richard Dyer, Ben Sebborn and the entire team at Skiddle Ltd’, begins by highlighting the financial situation at Skiddle. The company has been forced to close one of its offices, lay off around 20 of its staff members and is operating at 15% of its usual income.

It then explains how the company has been unable to take advantage of any government finance schemes with the exception of furlough, and that it did not apply to the Cultural Recovery Fund as it believed the money should have gone to venues themselves.

The letter goes on to express “sheer disgust” at some companies that applied for funding, mentioning Resident Advisor’s £750,000 grant in particular.

It reads: “Imagine our sheer disgust when the lists are published of who received grants, and amongst the many great people that received money, we see companies like Resident Advisor – a website that writes music reviews of events across the world, whilst generating income from tickets – and on their very own Facebook describe themselves as a Media/news company, and on Companies House list under 58190 – Other publishing activities – or Ticketline (the clues in the name) receiving VAST sums of money – whilst at the same time some of the best venues and event creators in the country/the world were not successful as they ‘Didn’t fit the bill’.”

The letter closes by saying that the government is “disconnected from culture”, and adds: “We call on you, the UK government, to get a grip. A funding process should be fair. There should be clear guidance across all authorities and agencies regarding who can apply for what support and why.”

A statement from Resident Advisor’s co-founder Nick Sabine, released last week, said: “We exist as an organisation to support electronic music culture. While we are deeply grateful to receive this lifeline, this is not a moment for celebration. The events caused by the pandemic continue to have dire consequences for the hundreds of thousands of people who give so much to keep our culture alive.”