It has proved an expensive summer to be a music fan. Neil Young's recent concert cost €105 a ticket, the same as a seat at Tuesday's Paul McCartney show. Meanwhile, a seat for today's Bruce Springsteen show costs €75 and tickets for The Rolling Stones in September cost up to €130.
Of course, that's before additional credit card handling and phone charges. It leaves little cash to go on the CD collection.
Aiken Promotions, behind the Springsteen, McCartney and Young concerts, say that the money breaks down into about 40 categories, and there's not always enough left over for the promoter. Of an average ticket price, about 50 per cent will go to the performer, 10 per cent for venue rental, 12 per cent to staffing costs and 8 per cent for promotional material. Insurance costs are put at about 4 per cent and increasing each year.
Other costs include catering, the cost of selling the tickets through an agent, the sound engineers, hotels and transport. In many cases, a show needs to sell out before a profit can be made, says Mr Peter Aiken.
"Promoters have lost a lot of money in the past. There have been a lot of six-figure losses." He admits regret over the McCartney ticket price. However, while the show only sold out on the night, the €105 seats which made up a quarter of the attendance had been snapped up straight away.
"With the McCartney ticket price, people may have had a valid point. Maybe it could have been a little cheaper, but we had wanted to make it special. It was his first show here in 40 years. A lot of promoters and agents, in fact, didn't think they were dear enough."
Tickets for McCartney's concert in Liverpool tomorrow night cost £30-£60. A seat at his recent Red Square concert cost $300.
Unlike in the UK, an Irish promoter cannot spread the cost across several shows. Mr Aiken also argues that many costs - such as accommodation, flights and staff - are "almost double" those in other European countries. A lengthy licensing process also means that approximately 5 per cent of a ticket price goes to the local council. "We have the toughest licensing laws in the world. There are no other new promoters in the market because the bureaucracy stops it."
One industry source says that performers often "hide behind promoters". In a rare case, complaints led promoters MCD to reduce the ticket price for a recent show by DJ Richie Hawton, but only after they convinced him to lower his fee.
The Consumers' Association of Ireland receives an average of 50 complaints a month relating to ticket prices, mostly about the "handling charge" for credit card purchases. A customer buying four tickets is charged per ticket and not per purchase.
CAI chief executive Mr Dermott Jewell argues that Ticketmasters' dominance of the market makes it easy for it to continue a practice which, he argues, shows no economy of scale. Ticketmaster, though, has consistently refuted criticism, saying that the charge covers, among other things, VAT, credit card fees and losses due to fraud. If there was an easier way to sell tickets, they say, promoters would find one.
Promoters, for their part, prefer the "one-stop shop" nature of a ticket agent than the trouble of distributing tickets themselves.
