Thanks for the link Gar! I had been wondering how to get tickets to see the BTCC. Not music related I know, but cheers anyway!

No worries. It's great to have competition so that we aren't being ripped off as much but I've always thought that the venues themselves should sell tickets. Hopefully it works out.

yes, good news indeed, especially if it brings prices down and the fact you could can select youre seat is a bonus, remember when you used to be able to do that with Ticketbastard ! if I were this bloke I'd steer clear of the Ryanair comparisons, its a good airline but would you want to be compared to Michael O' Leary ???

sorry to spoil the party but this is not going to change the situation too much the 2 biggest promoters in ireland are MCD and Aikens. They put on 90-95 per cent of the big shows in this country. they use ticketmaster and always will for a variety of reasons - chiefly because its a nobrainer for them because they only have to deal with one ticket agency and theres no messing around for them, theres probably also borderline corruption involved because i'm sure u will find plenty of links if u dig around btw T-Master directors and the relevant promoters but that's for someone with a big lawyer to discuss and not me or Cluas. occasionally they may throw the likes of ticketlord a bone but rest assured, for the big shows, they will ALWAYS go with ticketmaster despite ticketlord's njew investment in call centres and the like. for the smaller shows (ie ones in whelans and the village in dublin), there is already an alternative to Ticketmaster which is the Whelans/Village Box Office. i rang up the other week to get a few tickets for a show and was told there was NO BOOKING CHARGE on any of their gigs. That really came as (good) news to me and i hope i'm not the last to hear about this. like the vast majority of cluasers, i have loads and loads of problems with ticketmaster. i think its a rip-off, i think their charges are ludicrous and i think they have an unhealthy quasi-monopoly on their line of business in this country which should be tested and challenged by the Competition Authority or similar body. But until the likes of MCD and Aikens decide to use someone else to sell the tickets to their show, T-Master will continue to be the only serious game in town.

Well maybe if Ticket Lord have an attractive business plan, Aiken and MCD might switch over. Never say never in the world of business. I usually try to buy my tickets through Road Recs or WAV box office anyway, but I wouldn't be anti-ticketmaster at all as it is a good service - just a bit too expensive.

WAV do charge booking fee, €1 only tho. i try to use Road or Sound Cellar or venue's box office if i can, but for big gigs tickemaster is inevitable, usually have to buy em online

Yep, it's a total rip off. I was going to write a piece on this but got frustrated as there is lots of annecdotal evidence but nothing concrete to back it up. Anyhow, I'll detail some observations here. If you look at the ticket master website for their definition of 'Service Charge', they say 'The actual amount is determined by agreement with the venue or promoter for each event.' I'd really love to know how this works. What possible input could the promoter/venue have in deciding how much it'll cost Ticketmaster to sell the tickets? Ah, dug a little further and found this fascinating article - http://www.dailyhome.com/entertainment/2005/as-music-0113-0-5a12x4210.htm 'A portion of what we collect as our fees does get paid back to our clients," says David Goldberg, Ticketmaster’s executive vice president of strategy and business development. "Over time the portion of those fees that gets paid back has increased."' I wonder does this happen here? So not alone do they decide the ticket price, but the promoter might be getting a kick back from tickermaster? If this is the case, no wonder they ain't anxious to use anyone else! On another note, having worked developing the odd website, processing a credit card transaction can cost 2.5% of the transaction cost (which is a surprise to many people as the retailler usually consumes this cost but increasingly on the web, it is passed to the buyer). However, debit cards usually have a fixed and far lower transaction cost. This is still a long way off the service charge that sometimes approaches 10% (per ticket, not per transaction). It is time there was some transparency. Until then, I'll be using Sound Cellar and Road Recs (who are to be saluted).

on another point, has anyone else noticed the disparity in ticket prices from one irish city to another? brother wants to go see lemon jelly and theyre playing in cork's savoy. its 17 euros. just checked ticketmaster and for the dublin show, its 38.50 euros. HELLO???? thats over 100 percent difference between dublin and cork, i know its the city of culture but surely even that doesnt explain this one? anyone else ever notice similar differences? anyone care to guess what aside from promoter greed this is due to?

That is very annoying alright. Maybe they just think they can charge whatever they like in the capital - larger audience etc. I think it was the same with the Ordinary Boys. 17 Euro in the TBMC and 12 Euro in Limerick.

Lemon Jelly? What the hell is with that?? Absolute disgrace. The Belfast gig is 17 sterling. Even with currency conversion that's about 23 euro. It's time people started voting with their feet. I haven't been to a gig in the Olympia (one of my favourite venues) for years because I think the price of gigs there is outrageous.

i dont think ticketbastard have much to worry about in terms of ticketlord. i worked for them and they havent a f**kin clue what their at. there logo even looks like ticketmasters! in fairness to them they did get hard working class heroes, but as long as mcd and aiken rule theyre dead in the water.

Well there needs to be competition. Being a broke student, I can't afford 75 euro to see Brian Wilson in Vicar Street. It's a joke. I've missed out on some great acts because the tickets were too expensive.