I've never paid 40+% of a ticket's face value in fees at an indie show. I either pick them up at the box office or use the venue's site where I might pay 10% in fees. I was at a show in 2019 where I bought the tix direct from the artist and paid 3%. I wouldn't even care so much about it if you told me price upfront. If you told me tickets to this show were going to be $66, I'd probably still buy them. But much like the wonderful "Resort Fees" at hotels and the "Service Charge" that many restaurants are charging it's the opaque nature that offends me.
Why is that amount reasonable? What happens behind the scenes and who gets what cut is a completely different and irrelevant question. I agree to pay an amount for an item, now the place that I'm buying it from, the only place selling the item, tells me that I have to pay more. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that when you offer to sell me something you then sell it to me for that price. This is the definition of bait and switch, and would be illegal if you sold a product this way in WI.
I'm just saying the virtue of something being indie doesn't mean fee won't rack up, being mainstream isn't the issue.
What you want and I don't disagree with is for the law like airlines have about transparency in prices but for many people, and what I thought your original issue was about, it was the large fees that can be charged on tickets and the general cost of them (which can be stupid high which is why I posted the video).
I take issue with the deceptive nature of the fees. Same as I do with Resort fees at hotels. Charge whatever you want for your product, show, whatever, but when I ask you how much it is, tell me how much it is. I personally feel the amount of the fees is egregious for the cost of providing the service but when you have an effective monopoly you can do that. I took issue with it 30 years ago when I started going to concerts, but at least then it was a $3.95 convenience charge for not going to the box office and a $1.95 "phone transaction fee" on $40 tickets, not $18 in Miscellaneous fees on a $40 ticket.
I would like to see the show, and my son is very excited to see Imagine Dragons. There have been events where I've looked at the tickets, decided to go and then changed my mind when I saw how much the actual fees were.
To me that's the worst part, the venue and the promoter of this show are both Ticketmaster.
How so? You feel the government imposed taxes should be included in the daily rate? Whenever I book with Autoslash, I'm shown the daily rate the company is charging and the total price I'm going to be charged.
Right so you want a law like the airlines do where they have to show you the price up front. I don't disagree, I'd love for it to be on hotels too. Just saying I didn't originally get that was the bigger issue to you. I thought you were talking about just the fact that there can be ridiculous fees in general. Most of us don't want to pay them especially when they are so high even if they are bundled into the price. I myself dislike resort fees just based on principle.
