Thanks to a shitty economy, concert tickets will be cheaper...kind of. No Doubt, Toby Keith, U2, and Dave Matthews Band, have all agreed to have lower ticket prices. (in the 20-30 dollar range).

"They're creating lower price levels so that everybody will be able to come," says Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni. "I don't think anybody is looking around and going, 'Boy, I think I can sell out at $150 a ticket.' That's just not today's reality."  (article)

But we all know it isn't the artist that rings up the price of the ticket. Last tour a top level ticket for U2 was 160.00, with a Ticketmaster convenience charge of 10.00 and building facility charge of 2.00. This put the price up 12.00 dollars.

Well now Live Nation has decided to tack on a $6.00 parking fee. This will be on top of the convenience charge, building facility charge, and charge to send you the tickets.

Check out this underhanded shit pulled by Live Nation. Quotes are pulled from this article:

A day after music lovers panned a new $6-per-ticket parking charge for shows at New Jersey's PNC Bank PNC Bank Arts Center, promoter Live Nation eliminated it from its Web site - only to pile it back on top of the basic ticket price.

Charge	Description
Convenience	Covers fees that allow "Ticketmaster to provide the widest range of available tickets while giving you multiple ways to purchase tickets. Tickets are available in many neighborhoods via local ticket outlet locations, our [Ticketmaster] telephone reservation system and Ticketmaster.com. The convenience charge varies by event and is determined by negotiations with arena operators, promoters, and others based on costs for each event."
Building/Facility	Most building facility charges go to security at the event.
Order Processing	Covers the cost to fulfill your ticket request when you purchase the tickets online or by phone. This charge includes services, such as taking and maintaining your order on our [Ticketmaster] ticket systems, arranging for shipping and/or coordinating with the box office will call.

These charges are basically, YOU paying for the luxury of using Ticketmaster. Look, I hate Ticketmaster just as much as the next person. Live Nation is just as bad. But I don't think people would care if they bundled up the price of all those extra charges and said "U2 tickets are 60.00 bucks." That would include the 30.00 ticket and the 30.00 dollars in extra fees. Then when you go to buy your tickets, you are not surprised by the fact they are double the cost.

Some people still won't like those fees added on and are looking for a way to screw Ticketmaster and Live Nation. I do have some helpful advice for you:

1. Don't go to venues that don't use Ticketmaster/Live Nation. This might be hard to do since TM and LN have monopolized the industry.
   
2. Don't go to the concert. Concerts are not a necessity, so save your money and buy the concert on DVD and use the money on a new home theater system.
   
3. Buy from a scalper outside the venue. While they mark the price of the tickets up insanely high, they gradually come down in price as the show time gets closer and closer. You can generally get tickets from them under face value, which means they eat the service charges. Just be aware that they use fake tickets and money so be careful and mindful of this.
   
4. If you don't want to buy from the same guy who is making the fake tee shirts outside of the venue, large scale ticket scalpers will also eat the service charges as the time gets closer. You just have be patient and have a willingness to negotiate. Most times they didn't pay full price anyway, so they would be happy to part with the tickets at face rather than have them sitting in a desk unsold.