The real decline of the music industry

The real blame of the decline of the music industry and specifically why artists complain about not making any money is not file sharing but Ticketmaster. I recently bought tickets the the Shins shows here in Milwaukee. Tickets were priced at $24, a reasonable price for one of the best and most under appreciated bands of our generation. $24 to listen to sad emo music and will help you cry yourself to sleep is easily worth it. But here's where Ticketmaster is destroying music, they added an additional $9 per ticket in various charges. There is a TicketMaster charge (its takes balls to have a charge just named after you, not trying to disguise it under a different name) and there is also an ordering charge. Back in the good old days of outdoor music festivals and bands constantly touring, one could actually afford to go to concerts and one would know that the majority of the money is going to the musicians.

So some guy sitting at his apartment and downloading a few songs for free is not taking nearly as much money from the musicians than ticketmaster is. God forbid someone download some songs and begin to like an artist and then go out and but a t-shirt and go to a concert of theirs. Oh but wait, ticket prices are ridiculously priced and the majority of the money does not go to the artist. Most of us who are not suburban teenage girls who get all their money from daddy can really only afford to go to one or two concerts a year. And if you see a band once there is no reason to see them again a different year for that price. Gone are the days of seeing a band 4 or 5 times. I'm sure ticketmaster is already taking a good percentage of that $24 of the ticket price, why add all these surcharges on top of that. Of the $24 the band see very little; a percentage must go the venue hosting, Ticketmaster, crew and stage hands, and managers. The rest is left for the musicians who are actually the only ones that the audience is paying to see. Bands are pinched into having to use Ticketmaster because that is the only company that these venues will use, they will not allow bands to sell tickets themselves.

Thats enough anger for now, don't even get me started on the $10 parking and $7.50 beers there.