Ticketmaster and price gouging

With the exception of DeBeers, is there any company which singularly dominates an industry like Ticketmaster?

As an example, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is playing at a local venue. The lowest priced ticket is $36. And for $36, you don't get an actual seat to sit in. You pay $36 for lawn seating for a single act.

Going to the movies seems like a bargain by comparison! Even with the $4 candy bars.

$36 for a lawn 'seat' is a typical price for that venue.

If you want an actual seat inside the ampitheatre, the minimum cost is $86.

Eighty-six dollars!

And that's before Ticketmaster's myriad of special fees.

For maybe a two or three hour concert.

And it's not even one of the top current acts.

Ticketmaster says it does not determine the face value of the ticket and it probably doesn't directly. But it must charge promoters so much for their services that face value prices have to be jacked up to compensate.

On top of that $36 cost for a lawn 'seat', there's a $9 'convenience charge' if you buy online. That despite the fact that when you buy online, it doesn't require an actual person (labor costs) to check ticket availability for you. Is the actual cost to Ticketmaster of you logging in to their site and ordering a ticket really $9? Are bandwidth and security measures that expensive?

Even more ridiculous are the delivery options. They will postal mail it to you in a regular envelope for free, even though it costs them 39 cents for the stamp. But if you want it via email, something which costs them nothing, they charge you $2.50. And of course if you want it within 3 business days or , they'll UPS it to you for at least $14.50.

So for that lawn 'seat', you're paying a MINIMUM 25% extra in extra fees... up to almost 80%.

And that doesn't include $15 parking or $7 bottles of water or $35 t-shirts once you actually get to the concert.

Apparently, Ticketmaster thinks it's not ripping you off enough. Now, it's going to auction off seats to the highest bidder for popular shows, instead of selling tickets at a flat rate.

No, I don't think Congress should intervene here, any more than I think they should intervene to lower gas prices.

I don't think what Ticketmaster is doing fits the legal definition of price gouging. But it certainly fits the layman's definition. Yet if people don't like Ticketmaster's obscene policies, they don't have to go to concerts. That's my choice.

I haven't bought a ticket to a concert in about five years. I've been to exactly two concerts in the last 12 years. I love music and I'd like to go to more live shows. But ticket prices are outrageous. I like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but it's not worth $45 (plus incidentals) of my money to do so. I don't like any band that much. Which is why I don't go to concerts anymore... at least not at big venues.

For all the whining of music fans about Ticketmaster, the fact is that they charge these ridiculous prices because they know people will pay them. Because people DO pay them. They're going to auction off these tickets because they know people will pay through the nose for them.

There's nothing more annoying to me than to hear an automobilist whine that they 'have' to pay $50 to fill up their gas guzzler. With the possible exception of music fans sniffing that they 'had' to pay $50 to see their favorite band in concert. No one's putting a gun to your head to make you buy an SUV or pickup truck nor is anyone forcing you to drop a U.S. Grant to see Godsmack. The only way Ticketmaster will get the message and lower costs is if fans decide en masse to stop paying the outrageous prices. It's time to put up or shut up.

Save your money and subscribe to Napster. It's a lot better value.