Reason #1,432 Why The Concert Industry Sucks

Like numerous other people, I bought tickets to see both the "Long" and "Short" nights of The Decemberists' stopover in D.C. scheduled for this weekend. I bought my tickets through the Musictoday presale and paid $60.

As you have likely heard by now, the entire "Long and Short Of It" tour has been canceled due to one or more rather serious illnesses among the band members. The cancellation is completely understandable and I wish the band nothing but the best in their recovery.

That said, I noticed today that I finally received my "refund" from Musictoday in the amount of $50.

Yep, that's right -- I paid $60 and got $50 back, meaning that Musictoday (not the band, as far as I can see) kept nearly 17% of my money for merely sending me two tickets that I can't use. Oh, and I also got a cheap little tour 12" x 18" tour poster which went directly from my mailbox to my garbage can.

I understand that Musictoday has expenses, and regardless of whether or not these concerts take place, they're in the hole for those costs. Postage, paper, printing, labor, etc. But I can also guarantee you that this expense was nowhere near $10 per customer. Moreover, even if it were $10 per customer, why should the customer be responsible for these fees? Why are the customers the ones forced to bear the risk of a cancellation?

Perhaps it makes sense from an efficiency perspective to divide the costs of the cancellation up among the many fans rather than force Musictoday or the band to bear them alone. But efficiency does not equate with fairness, especially when you're an indie band and the majority of your fans are between 18-30 and don't tend to have a ton of money to throw away for no real reason. (Yes, beer is a real reason.) It's bad enough that we have to pay exorbitant service charges when we actually get to SEE the band, but when the show is cancelled and we're stuck with the fees anyway, it's even worse.

Just another in a long list of ways that the current model of the music industry is alienating its customers, I guess.