What's the deal with concert ticket prices?

NME and NBC were singing from the same hymn sheet late last month when news broke that Barbra Streisand had cancelled the Roman concert which had been due to kick-start her European tour later this week.

Despite the organiser's protestations that it had been scrapped because of "production difficulties", the indie bible and the mainstream US broadcaster, alongside many other news sources, linked the cancellation to a strident consumer protest at the prices being charged for tickets. At €150, the cheap seats were anything but and those willing to splash out to get the very best seats in the 24,000-seater Stadio Flaminio were getting little change out of €1,000.

Outraged Italian consumer groups dubbed the prices "absurd and shameful" and urged Rome's city government and Italy's Olympic committee to deny permission for the singer to use the stadium. The stadium "is public property and cannot be used for immoral deals that are shameful to a civilised country", two consumer groups said in a joint statement. Days later the concert was scrapped.

Sadly, the Irish consumer is a lot less vocal when it comes to complaining about high prices and, while there were gently disapproving murmurs when the tickets for Streisand's July concert in Kildare's Castletown House went on sale at a cost of between €118.50 to €550, there was no talk of boycotts or shameful and absurd pricing. Streisand fans just paid for their tickets like the good little consumers we all seem to have become and started looking forward to the summer evening when middle-of-the-road memories from the funny girl would wash gently over them.

By the time she takes to the stage in the middle of July, 15,000 tickets will have been sold at a total cost of about €5 million. The bulk of the cash is likely to find its way into Streisand's bank account. She is expected to pocket roughly €3 million for the show (which is what she was reputedly earning last year per gig in the US). There should be €1.5 million to cover the costs of her 58-piece orchestra, associated hangers on, the taxman and promoter MCD's organisational costs.

Not all the tickets have been sold yet, or at least they weren't when PriceWatch checked last week but, unsurprisingly, those priced at €118.50 and €193.50 are long gone and the only tickets left cost €270 and €550.

Despite the high price, the Streisand show is not MCD's top money spinner this year. The promoter is also behind Oxegen, which has proven to be the biggest draw of the Irish summer for the past three years. Such is the reputation of the festival that 80,000 tickets - at €177.50 a pop - were sold within two hours of going on sale in March, weeks before the line-up was finalised.

The tickets, it seems, will sell out no matter what the price tag. In 2004 Oxegen tickets were €130 for the two days plus camping, while last year the same tickets had a price tag of €160. This year the price for a weekend ticket with access to the campsite for the duration had jumped to €197.50.

While these increases may look bad, MCD spokesman Justin Green is absolutely adamant that Irish music fans are still getting a good deal. To be fair to MCD, it did introduce a novel price freeze which allowed people to buy tickets at last year's prices if they bought them before the end of last year. "Oxegen was the first ever event to offer this type of discount offer to fans," Green says.

While prices are undoubtedly higher, Green blames the jump on the Government. Leaving aside newly introduced VAT, "weekend ticket prices including camping for three nights have only increased by 8.75 per cent or €14 on last year," he says. He points out that with inflation running at roughly five per cent, the price increase is less then four per cent, "which is largely due to major increases in media advertising costs of between 15 and 19 per cent".

The Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois is billed as more eclectic and (cool) family friendly than its yoof-oriented cousin in Kildare, but despite its chilled-out reputation the price rises have been anything but relaxed. Tickets for the three-day festival are (or at least were before they were sold out) €220. Last year they cost €175.

The Government is the main culprit for the big jump and clearly regards music fans as mugs who will pay whatever is asked of them to see their favourite bands. Last autumn it decided it wanted a bigger piece of the festival pie and announced plans to introduce a fun tax (or VAT as it calls it) on the Electric Picnic, Oxegen and any other festival where "substantial snacks, hot food or alcoholic drink" are served. It is expected to make €700,000 from Electric Picnickers alone while Oxegen will generate in excess of €1.8m in VAT for the Government coffers, adding €23.50 on to every ticket sold. And all so festival-goers can eat horrible, semi-cooked burgers flipped from the back of dodgy camper vans.

While international attention in recent weeks has been focused on the high price of Streisand tickets, at the opposite end of the musical spectrum Ozzy Osbourne has also attracted press for very different reasons. This year's Ozzfest tour is free, with the costs and artist fees being covered by a range of sponsorship deals.

Ozzy was said to be delighted his fans would get to see him and other like-minded musicians perform, but expressed his confusion as to how it is going to work. "I think it's absolutely superb. I have no idea how they have managed to make it pay, but they have. Look at prices these days . . . I mean, who wants to pay $1,000 to see Barbra Streisand in London?" he said. Who indeed?