It’s a funny word, census. Mainly thanks to its biblical sense (no, not that, missus).

Back in the day, when Mary and Joseph were heading home for Xmas – sorry, ‘holidays’ – they’d have been asked for their name, their job, their religion…

In the music community, depending on when you read this, a census is being conducted this week, aiming to find out why people attend gigs, which venues are considered important, how much people spend and how far they will travel to see a show. The organisers (uklivemusiccensus.org) call it a “Springwatch for live music.”

Of course, there are many more people than just the punters frequenting our music venues – some more obvious than others. There’s the musicians themselves of course, but behind the scenes, the roadies, bookers, bar staff – all one big happy family.

And there’s the illegitimate offspring, the black sheep – the ticket touts.

If you’re not fed up with them, you’ll be fed up reading about them. Even the news that rugby and charity tennis match tickets now retail at vastly inflated prices seems to have cut very little ice the powers-that-be. Thought I note that someone recently was refunded the £1300 they paid for Ed Sheeran tickets (that’s quite a rip-off) as the price wasn’t correctly displayed on the website.

So it’s heartening but odd that the BBC is now getting involved in the argument. Pretty soon – towards the end of March – 6 Music hosts its annual festival. This year the online digital station’s jamboree takes place in Glasgow, but people will travel from far and wide to this event. Which is part of the problem. With headliners like Depeche Mode playing rare shows at relatively small venues, tickets are in high demand. Indeed, there were calls for the show to be made free and outdoor, like the Radio One Big Weekend events. It’s our licence fee, after all… though if we go down that route we’d get ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys – The Musical’ (if that’s not a thing already).

In fact, the base price isn’t that bad – £30 or so – but as we all know, the advertised rate is seldom what you pay. Even ‘legit’ sellers – the venues themselves – add a booking fee on top of the advertised price. Then there’s the admin fee (not the same thing, apparently) and of course there’s postage, where your precious briefs are helicoptered to you in gold leaf envelopes. Of course you can opt to collect them – you’ll still be charged of course – or you could print your own tickets with your own ink and paper, and… you’ll have to pay to do that, which is, as then-Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said, the mark of a “classic entrepreneur”.

Anyway, 6 Music tickets inevitably sold out in a matter of minutes and, predictably, immediately appeared on so-called ‘secondary’ sites for as much as a mind-melting £900.

At this point things got interesting. The news broke that the tickets would have the name of the person who paid for them printed on them.

Fans who presumably didn’t know this are blaming the BBC, which is a bit like blaming the fire brigade for flooding your house when they put out the blaze the burglars started after breaking in and stealing your hi-fi.

But named ticketing presents many interesting issues. For a start, the ticket holder will need ID. Presumably the three pals who chipped in will also have to be there at the same time. I’d get there early.

But the really good bit – perhaps best viewed from across the road with a tub of popcorn – will be when someone who’s bought a ticket from a tout website is refused entry. Security will apparently be in attendance.

Which could make for a very empty venue. Maybe just as well 6 Music’s festival isn’t this week – the census data could be a bit out…