Online ticket rip-off
There are three things I find annoying about going to gigs these days. The first is people that phone a friend on their mobile and hold it in the air during a song. This suggests a certain 'I'm here and you're not' smugness, and all the recipient hears anyway is a drunken goon in the crowd slurring the wrong words to Don't Look Back in Anger.
The second is when you find yourself actually standing next to the very same slurring drunken goon.
The third is online booking fees that online ticket sellers charge. I can understand that these companies are providing a service and should be able to charge a fee, but why does it differ between artists and gigs?
For example, if you want to go and see KT Tunstall in Wolverhampton you'd pay £1.75 on top of the ticket price. However, if you booked tickets to this year's V Festival, you'd pay a whopping £7.50. Surely the booking process and postage for sending out tickets must be the same for any artist?
Useful links
You can add a fourth to the list - touts buying up all the tickets to gigs and then selling them for a premium on eBay.
For example, tickets to see Radiohead in Wolverhampton sold out, unsurprisingly, on the day they were released. But there are already approx. 100 tickets for sale on eBay, some up to as much as £150 for a pair, which have a face value of around £70.
It will be interesting to see what prices they rise to closer to the gig.
Posted by: Rob Lewis | March 29, 2006 at 10:56 PM