Once they reach that level of stardom, you're pretty much screwed on ticket prices. They need to recoup for the venue, the crazy lights and special effects, the promoter, the roadies...the list goes on. Then Ticketmaster tacks on the oh-so-inconvenient "Convenience Charge" and you're looking at $50. Fortunately, most of the bands I like play smaller venues, with the Murat Egyptian room being about the biggest. With the exception of Lollapalooza, I don't think I've ever paid more than $20 for the ticket, and I've seen some AMAZING bands.

I remember seeing DMB back in 1996 for $18 on the lawn at Deer Creek (of which it will always be Deer Creek). Now it's $40 + fees. Pavillion is $75, which by most large acts standards is still "cheap". But it jumped $10-15 a ticket this year over last years $60. The band has nothing to do with setting the price. They just negotiate what the venue pays them, and then the venue is pretty much allowed to ask what they want and ticketmaster is allowed to tack on their multiple absurd fees. So a lot of people bitch and moan about how the band needs to take a stand with ticket prices, but they don't know that the band has no hand in setting the price. Will this stop me from going to shows? Mmmmmmmm maybe the 6-10 times I travel around to see DMB, but I'm still going to at least 5 shows this year and catching RUSH, front row center. $109 for those bad boys.

The supply curve and demand curve can be beastly...live music is a product.
I'd love to be able to pay $15 for a ticket, $10 for a bootleg tshirt, and $1 for a beer. But, then again, I'd also like to be looking at a tuition bill for my kid that's about 1/4 or 1/3 of what it is today. Point me to the Wayback Machine!

You have to keep your ears low to the ground. Colleges have concerts all of the time with low prices but they are sort of underground so that they stay affordable for the college students. Like COMMON at Butler. It wasn't very well advertised but the tickets were cheap!