Live music is a great event and one I enjoy going too a lot.
Whether it's seeing small gigs in local pubs or heading to the huge stadiums like Wembley and sharing the huge experience of a band and 90,000 close friends dancing the night away, it is one of the great times to have.
But it feels like the ticket companies are not exactly helping in enjoyment of this.
The fees for tickets, for instance, are insane. This is not just the extortionate additional fees Viagogo, StubHub and other companies like this add (more of whom later), but the actual main ticket agencies.
The last ticket I purchased was to see The Killers on October 31st. The Las Vegas band are doing a 13 date tour and, despite their absence ahead of this year's fourth record, this tour is highly anticipated.
I can handle the queuing to wait - this demand means the website will be getting a lot of hits and a lot of people trying to get their hands on seats. That's normal, as can be the possibiliy of disappointment when an event sells out (as it did for me when I entered my details for a show in London only for the sold out signs to appear).
What frustrates me is the additional expense of the ticket fees.
Obviously the sellers will want to receive payment for their services but gig tickets are expensive enough without the addition of extra, expensive fees.
With roughly £10 added to a £45 ticket, the level that they have gone to is ridiculous. And sadly not an exception - the additional £10 fee to an already bloated £55 ticket price put me off seeing Muse, and that is one of the lighter ones.
I already blogged a review of the Kasabian show at London's Brixton Academy. What I didn't say was the stupid £4 fee Ticketmaster insisted on adding just to send me an e-mail. Granted this e-mail was my ticket but surely that is the limit to ridiculous fees.
I don't think I have ever seen more of a rip-off in anything. Granted there are postage costs in any thing but surely the fact you're not paying for envelopes, stamps and transporting the ticket from the printers to the buyers, but it is insane that Ticketmaster are able to do this to this exent.
And this is before the other side of the coin - selling on your ticket.
Normally when I buy a gig ticket, I will happily go. However I am aware I may need to sell some tickets if I feel my ears, which have been in trouble of late, can't take it. That's understandable.
But looking around, it seems re-selling is a huge con of a market.
A Channel 4 documentary and associated articles revealed Viagogo and Seatwave each received huge allocations for major tours in 2011, including Coldplay and Take That, and still continued to for Coldplay's 2012 tour.
I am not a fan of Coldplay but I think it's ridiculous that their fanbase is being taken for a ride by these companies, who have not only got tickets but a license to rip people off.
It is worth noting that these are allegations, but the fact various concert promoters said that the viagogo company was listed as a reputabale company for the selling of tickets is depressing.
The fact the other tickets sold out mean that they are allowed to simply jack up the prices to bombastic levels. It is irritating to see a price jacked up by double, triple or in some cases quadruple their face value.
This is also not just for eBay - this is on an allegedly reputable company whose sole market is basically no different to the murky world of eBay resellers or people on street corners by the venue going "Buy or sell tickets".
It is insane the government classifies this murky world as a good example of enterprise culture. They are basically creating money out of nothing with the sole intention of ripping people off, and it is painful to watch. And this is before the fact it is official partners of people like the NME and the Reading Festival.
When Madonna's Hyde Park show was officially selling tickets through viagogo, I thought that was a bold and frankly reckless move. Her shows are already amongst the most expensive gigs in the country, with £100 ticket prices. The fact that viagogo were selling them and allowed to charge what they felt like was one of the most depressing things to see.
Unlike eFestivals, who once said this could lead to face value tickets becoming a thing of the past, I don't think that promoters will want to do this.
It's a huge problem - a lot of tickets can't be bought for face value, and even then that value is distorted by extorionate fees.
The one obvious thing to do with the wildly poor re-sale market is capping this to either face value or a percentage - 5, 10, 15 or whatever.
I personally cannot use viagogo or other companies like this because they charge stupid extra fees as well as giving me the impression I'm taken for a ride.
But I'm not sure if it's just the re-selling that I'm basically being charged needless extra fees. The utmost insanity in fees I've been charged was £15 by SeeTickets for the one-day event Hard Rock Calling Festival in June 2011, and other fees are still being added.
This is one that is a bit more of a thorny issue to decide, but with more and more musicians relying on live music for income and more people going to these things, there has to be more protection to stop the fans from being ripped off and deserting the venues and festivals.
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