If you are a reader here, you know my vehemence towards Ticketmaster. It's nothing newsworthy, everyone hates them. The good news is that Ticketmaster hasn't just been screwing you and your hot wife, they have been angering the vendors as well. Last year, universities starting turning away from Ticketmaster because of the exorbitant fees. Ticketmaster didn't care, because they had the grand enchilada of monopolies — the concert industry.

See, Ticketmaster had an exclusive contract with 'Live Nation'. What is Live Nation? They are Clear Channel. Yeah, they are the ones who own all the venues and radio stations. With the two teamed together against consumers, 'convenience charges' were hitting up to 40% of face value. Apparently, I am not the only one who stopped leaving the house because it was too expensive. Live Nation announced yesterday that they are dropping Ticketmaster.

This is HUGE and good and joyful news. Does it mean savings to the consumer, probably not. Still, I want Ticketmaster to suffer deeply. For too long, they took advantage of consumers, bullied artists, and tore apart fan clubs. How so? In the old days, a band could sell their own concert tickets to their fans. Crazy, huh? The Grateful Dead pioneered the mail order ticket business. Ticketmaster changed that, and wanted a cut. They also decided how many tickets a band could sell to it's own base. Ask the guys from String Cheese Incident about that little gem and the multi year lawsuit.

Seriously, you could not make up how evil they were. For example, Ticketbastard now lets you print your own tickets right at home. It saves them shipping, toner, and ticketstock paper. So, do you get a discount for using all of your own supplies? NOPE. They actually charge you $2.50 for the privilege. I can't wait to watch them go under and die a horrible, painful, and long death. I won't be satisfied until they come out and say "It's true, we took advantage of consumers and we are sorry. We paid the price, and accept the consequence of our actions."