Interesting break out of Ticketmaster fees:

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A few comments:

-In this example, of the $20.50 in total service charges,  $8.25 (40%) goes to Ticketmaster and the remaining $12.25 (60%) goes to the venue. The distribution of face value ticket proceeds amongst the artist, label, Ticketmaster and venue would be even more interesting.

-Major artists are often able to negotiate cuts of the service fees and/or tickets for their own use or sale. The Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor has eloquently discussed this and the secondary ticket market.

-Although complaints about Ticketmaster fees are ubiquitous, Ticketmaster isn’t making as much money as the average user would think. However, this is probably a moot point as no one likes to be hit with extras at the end; it makes people feel ripped off or cheated. It’s one thing to pay more money for shipping. It’s another to pay numerous extra fees that are often esoteric and glibly named (convenience fees?!). If you ever want to be infuriated look at your cell phone bill. Not surprisingly, customer sentiment towards phone companies and Ticketmaster is very similar.

-But, this isn’t all Ticketmaster’s fault. Ticketmaster has tried switching to a pricing model where all or most of the convenience fees are built in to the face value ticket price. The end price would be the exact same, but the ticket buying experience would be significantly more transparent and mostly spared of backloaded fees. Unfortunately, this sort of pricing structure has been met with opposition from the artists and venues who don’t want to raise prices, or rather don’t want the appearance of raising prices. When the face value cost is lower, it’s much easier for the artists and venues to shift blame towards Ticketmaster for “excessive fees” even if the artists and venues are getting a cut.

-Since Ticketmaster tacks the fees at the end, its competitors and the secondary ticket providers follow suit. People are used to having to pay extras even if they complain about it.

(thanks Garry Tan for the image)