Photo:
Your favourite band are playing a show near you! So it's probably time to take out a mortgage.
There's nothing in the world that beats live music and with tickets going on sale for your favourite band; an extra early wake up and hours of manically clicking the refresh button over and over doesn't seem like a big deal when you get to see your heroes in the flesh.
However, many fans are greeted at the end of the ticketing tunnel with prices that will see you taking a second job and working until you're 85.
In the middle of a crippling recession, some bands are finding it difficult to justify charging insane amounts of money for just a handful of gigs and there's only one loser in all of this – the fans. Even after forking out their hard-earned cash, there's still the booking fee and price of beer to think about and it's not surprising to see some are being turned off gigs and festivals.
This is not to say that bands are not struggling at the moment because some are; smaller full time touring bands rely on money earned 'on the door' at gigs with record sales dwindling in a market that's bee a victim to the popularity of the internet.
But can some bands and artists justify selling tickets for up to £60-80 for just a small amount of dates? Apparently they can and this was shown with Radiohead tickets going on sale for over £65 each last week with only three dates on the UK strand of the tour.
Massively popular bands such as Radiohead are seemingly able to 'name their price' in regards to touring and this is having a knock-on effect with smaller bands; they are lowering gig prices for their smaller fan-bases in hope enough money will be made on the door to pay their petrol costs and food.
Is there a way out of this mess though? If fans of the bigger bands and artists don't refuse to pay for the tickets then it looks like high gig prices are here to stay and even in an economic crisis such as this, people are still digging deep to pay for live music.
Maybe it's time for these bands to start putting what they love first instead of eyeing up that brand new sports car as a treat, it's very easy to see why people are losing faith in some aspects of the music industry. For us normal people it's back to selling our kidneys on eBay to fund our love of music.