They have a way of getting around this protest: if you travel to the venue box office and buy tickets in person, you'll get tickets at face value. So it's possible to get tickets at face, but it's no secret that a substantial majority of buyers prefer to endure the "convenience charge" associated with buying online.

That's interesting, but brings up two more points:

First, which price do they state up front when you buy online? If it's the base price, then it's still wrong. My grocery store wouldn't be able to get away with advertising $1/pound at the location where I shop, charging me $2/pound, and saying that they do offer $1/pound as long as I travel to one of their other stores that offers it.

Second, why do people complain about TicketMaster so much if it's this easy to bypass? Is there some kind of hidden catch, or do all of these people hate these hidden fees enough to blog about them but not enough to go buy the tickets in person?

In many ( most) cases it's impractical for people to buy tickets at the venue. Even leaving out situations where tickets sell out quickly the costs associated with going to a downtown box office tend to exceed the fees annoying as they are--and even in person there tend to be various facility fees and the like.

It can't be fees for buying in person, since I'm being told that buying in person with no fees is how they can get away with advertising a the base price. As for the inconvenience of buying in person, that really doesn't seem to add up, but I suppose people really could prefer to spend an extra $60 over going to the venue in person to buy.

What's interesting is that airlines work in the opposite direction: free if you buy online, fee if you buy at the ticket counter.

That makes more sense to me, since computers can handle a lot more orders per employee cost.

In some ways, the airline industry is one of the most purely competitive industries we see. Most airline customers care about price above all other things. A $5 difference in price can make the difference between a person choosing airline A or airline B. While a company like TicketMaster will tack on convenience fees any time they think they can make an extra buck, the airlines are actively trying to avoid applying extra fees to their typical customer, because that typical customer will jump ship to another airline in an instant if they think they can get a better deal there.

In short, TicketMaster is charging "convenience fees" purely because they can, while airlines charge you for buying a ticket from a real person because competition makes them charge for what actually costs them money.

There's at least some competition. I'm in Raleigh, and to get to, say, Chicago, I've got multiple airline options (some direct, some 1 or 2 stops, etc). If I want to see The Who in Greensboro, there's only one game in town.