OK this is out of control. I know not many people LIKE Ticketbast@rd, but this whole fee thing is totally ludicrous at this point. I just had an aquaintance of mine pay for 2 tickets to a show at a smaller club. Now, tickets to said show are $17.55 per ticket. Not ridiculous, right? Right. OK, so now somehow when it's all said and done, this person shelled out $56.65 for these 2, yes 2, tickets. Now, to add further fuel to this, the band sees absolutely NONE of these fees in the way of compensation, according to their people. How is this not racketeering?? Over a 50% mark-up per ticket...

Feel free to share your disdain below, sorry for b|tching but this stuff is ridiculous.

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.com

Star tickets is no better. I bought two $23 Mars Volta Tickets and the total after fees was $65.

I had the same problem with Wilco at Verizon. The tickets say $20 on them, but you end up paying $28 for "convenience charges".

They have a new deal where they will email you the tickets for an additional 2 bucks instead of mailing them. We save ticketmaster the cost of a stamp, envelope, and paper tickets and are supposed to be so thankful that we shell out 2 extra dollars for the privilege?

quote:

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How is this not racketeering?? Over a 50% mark-up per ticket...

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Make no mistake, it is racketeering. I really detest the corporate lobby.

Ticket******* is just an evil we will be dealing with for a long time. If the show won't sell out and is general admission, go to a Wherehouse Music or something. Yo uavoid the mailing fees, and I believe the convenience fees are cheaper. If you can, go buy the tickets at the box office. Your fees will be even smaller. However, if it's something like U2 that'll sell out in minutes, bend over.

Another thing to check. A lot of artists have some sort of internet presale run by a company that is not run via Ticketmaster. I did this for Elvis Costello recently. Even though public tix were done via ticketmaster, the presale were not. Though the fees are usually a few bucks less, even if they weren't I'd go this option to give the finger to Ticketmaster.

or you can start listening to bands that don't sell tix in that manner. i usually get to see 5 national bands for $8-10 at a local dive. hope you like punk/ska/hardcore music (and i don't mean simple plan).

Didn't Pearl Jam launch some anti-ticketmaster campaign years ago that wasn't successful?

Yeah, they cancelled an entire tour in 1994 because of Ticketbąstard's "convenience fees." I believe they got the FTC or the Justice Department involved, too... but like I said, the corporate lobby is too strong.

i *do* go mostly to club shows that you buy at the door, or at a record store, or online via non-TM sites. But sometimes bigger acts come through I'd like to see and TM is the only company allowed to sell those tix. Ad I've gone to lots of indie shows in smaller clubs where TM were selling the tickets.

Echoes- I couldn't agree more. I hate TicketBast@rd. Their fees are absolutley ridiculous. They have priced me out of more shows than the artists have, and that is a lot.

2 tickets to audioslave were $92 after everything was said and done.

OK so I go to buy my ticket for The Black Crowes here in Houston online. OK, tickets are $35.00, pretty pricey for one act, but hey it's the Crowes and how long has it been??? Anyway, the in-convenience fee is $8.30. Plus another $2.50, as was pointed out earlier, for the chance to print my own freaking tickets. Alright, so after it's all said and done, we're looking at $45.80 for one ticket to the Crowes. You think the entire $35.00 is going to the band and/or the facility? I think not. So that means that Ticketbast@rd is getting a percentage (likely a sizeable one) of the $35.00, plus the ever mysterious "convenience fee" of $8.30, plus another $2.50 for the self-printing "priviledge." Sweet deal if you ask me, why the hell didn't I think of this??

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.com

This is from the Tickermaster website:

The convenience charge varies by event and is determined by negotiations with arena operators, promoters and others, based on costs for each event.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/h/faq.html