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<p>The good bands will be sold out whatever the ticket prices are. Attending a concert is priceless. You will never get the same experience by watching a concert on your computer.</p>
<p>Last time S went to a concert, tickets were available through Ticketmaster or The Vault. He went with The Vault, much lower fees, about 3.50 per ticket I think? They only seem to work with specific venues and bands though. I agree more competition is needed.</p>
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<p>Do you know how much less it costs to hire and train employees if HR just move out of the way and let the team do the selection and training (which is not really needed if the person with the right skill set is hired in the first place)?</p>
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<p>What team are you talking about? There is a whole selection process when looking at applications, interviewing, and hiring employees. That’s what the HR department is for.</p>
<p>You will never know 100% when you hire an employee that has all the skills for the job. This is why employees are trained.</p>
<p>I can tell much faster if a candidate a good fit for a position in my group than a typical HR person can. Guess why?</p>
<p>And how much analytical chemistry background do you, an HR major, have to be able to train my employee?</p>
<p>I’m not saying that HR people are of no use. They are invaluble when it comes to handling benefits, immigration issues and such, but they should definitely stay out of the interviews and training.</p>
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<p>That’s true. I won’t have to put up with the belligerent drunk who steps on my toes 20 times on his way to get more beer.</p>
<p>I won’t have to put up with the seven girls on my left who think a concert is a sorority party where everyone talks at once for two hours. At least I could actually hear the concert tonight.</p>
<p>I won’t have to put up with the broken hearted couple on my right having a lover’s spat for an hour and fifteen minutes, despite 20 people begging them to take it outside. She’s crying, he’s pleading, for the entire concert. At least tonight, I could hear the band sing the blues.</p>
<p>I’m one of those weirdo who actually likes to listen to music. If I wanted to drink beer and tolk, I’d go to a bar instead of wasting $100 a head on a concert ticket.</p>
<p>I’ve been to a couple of concerts, even a few priceless ones over the years. Probably more priceless than most anybody touring these days.</p>
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<p>Ticketmaster is the least of it. Until recently, Ticketmaster was owned by Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter in the country. Live Nation owned or controlled virtually every venue in the country from the House of Blues to all the summer amphitheaters. Live Nation was, of course, owned by Clear Channel Communications, which owns the top 200 or so biggest radio stations in the United States.</p>
<p>And that, folks, is why the music industry is dominated by autotune dreck like Brittney Spears and rap.</p>
<p>^^idad, and let me add: I don’t have to fight traffic to get to the venue, overpay for parking two miles away from it and then endure what you’ve described. Luckily for me, Seattle Opera and PNB still sell their tickets at the box office, the patrons of these venues are a bit civilized, and parking is not a problem.</p>
<p>Didn’t Ticketmaster and Live Nation just merge recently? What a coincidence that fees shot up recently as well…</p>
<p>Tonight I bought tickets online to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at our local science museum. I also ordered museum passes and booked to see the Omnitheater film. No convenience fee, no handling fee, no charge to print out my own tickets. Purchased through the museum’s online website. The only real difference with Ticketmaster is that their system has to handle the seating arrangements for a lot of different venues. That sure isn’t worth an extra 36%. </p>
<p>As someone stated above, if they wonder why people stop buying tickets… There are plenty of other activities looking for my time and money; until Ticketmaster gets some competition, I will be reluctant to buy tickets to anything that sells through them. Nothing anyone has said here describes a change in their business model that means they should have gone from $5/ticket to $16/ticket on extra charges in a couple of year period.</p>
<p>Also, yes, you do have a choice of whether to buy the tickets or not. And once you see the fees, many people might think they should go down a notch to a cheaper ticket. But as interesteddad stated above, when you get in and you are already out to the balcony seats, you run the risk that you won’t get ANY tickets if you start your search again for cheaper seats.</p>
<p>I am buying tickets for our local community theater. The entire season of 6 plays tickets that they will hold for me at the box office and will charge us only $2/ticket processing fee. The price per season ticket is [drumroll]…$54! We buy 4, so we are forced to spend time with friends and be sociable! :)</p>
<p>Have not bought a ticket through Ticketmaster in literally decades, since college & grad school.</p>
<p>HImom, you are now forewarned if you do use Ticketmaster :)</p>
<p>Interesting about the museum and theater tickets - my friend said the tickets for the National Geographic terra cotta warriors exhibit in DC had huge fees when she bought online also.</p>
<p>In hopes of not getting censored, my friends and I refer to Ticketmaster as Ticketbastards. </p>
<p>The worst of it is that if a show gets canceled you can get the ticket price back but not the outrageous fees.</p>
<p>I’m happy that many locally use volunteers & local staff to keep the overhead low for local events. The concerts and huge events do have much higher fees. Ticketmaster’s tentacles do reach HI as well :(</p>
<p>Allman Brothers are about to take the stage for the third night of their NYC run. I can’t imagine they can top last night.</p>
<p>Glad to be sitting at home, nice and dry, rather than soaking wet on at the United Palace Theater on 175th Street. The only obnoxious drunk tonight will be me, if I decide to have a second glass of wine at intermission.</p>
<p>No Ticketmaster service charges.</p>
<p>And, drummer Butch Trucks logs on at intermission to chat with the subscribers enjoying the concert from home tonight…</p>
<p>21st century rock n’ roll.</p>
<p>I go to about three live shows a month, if I am lucky- concerts as well as plays etc.
Recordings are * nice* and I especially enjoy recordings from shows that I remember live. I stopped printing the tickets out myself, because they doesn’t look as cool when you tuck them into the framed poster from the show.</p>
<p>I saw this show a couple weeks ago- at a local club- I stood next to the stage for the entire first set which was several hours long- I have met most of the performers and enjoy seeing them around town. It was a magical evening.
[Mike McCready, Duff McKagen, and Jeff Rouse - “River of Deceit” @ Hootenanny for Haiti](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJdFxFZKpE”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJdFxFZKpE</a>)
[Benefit for Haiti](<a href=“http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/03/duff_mckagan_hootin_it_up_with.php”>http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/03/duff_mckagan_hootin_it_up_with.php</a>)</p>
<p>Most local shows don’t use Ticketmaster, but some do, and when they are out of town there often isn’t any way around it- they have a monopoly.</p>
<p>I understand if you don’t manage to get out to a show, and I admit that if the shows were like the arena shows of my youth, then I wouldn’t probably bother- but live music is church for me-and while recordings can move me- it is not the same.</p>
<p>( the shows I go to- are often one price & relatively inexpensive- $10 to $30 before ticketmaster- I do notice that TIcketmaster doesn’t seem to charge a flat fee, it looks like it is more of a % of ticket price)</p>