This is just one of the stories from our “I’ve Always Wondered” series, where we tackle all of your questions about the world of business, no matter how big or small. Ever wondered if recycling is worth it? Or how store brands stack up against name brands? Check out more from the series here.Reader Holly L. asks:Why are the fees on such sites like Ticketmaster so high?The average ticket price for your favorite artist’s concert can already set you back hundreds of dollars, but fees can amount to more than a third of the ticket’s face value.Some of the fees you might see on your ticket include a service fee and a facility charge. Venues use service fees to help pay their employees and fund their “day-to-day operations,” while Ticketmaster uses those fees to pay for customer support, credit card processing and equipment, according to Ticketmaster’s website. Venues take the entirety of the facility fee, a price that they set, and use it to pay for their staffing, insurance and suppliers. Artists earn at least 85% of a ticket’s face value, so these fees are a way for Ticketmaster to generate more revenue, said Dean Budnick, the co-author of “Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.” While Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation have crucial day-to-day expenses, critics have argued that they’re overcharging customers and engaging in anticompetitive practices. In April a federal jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly and overcharged customers by $1.72 per ticket in 22 states after dozens of states sued Live Nation. (While the Justice Department had initially joined the suit, it settled with the company a month earlier.)In 2025, Live Nation was able to generate $25 billion in revenue. Live Nation and Ticketmaster can then use that revenue to pay the artists they want to tour using their services and venues, enabling them to outbid smaller, independent venues, said Stephen Parker, executive director of the National Independent Venue Association. Marketplace reached out to Live Nation for comment on how it sets its fees, but did not receive a response by publication time. Service fees used to be small, around $1 or less, but that changed when Fred Rosen became the CEO of Ticketmaster in 1982, Budnick said in a 2024 interview with Marketplace. Rosen struck deals with venues, allowing them to share in service fees, while Ticketmaster would get the exclusive right to sell all the tickets at that venue, Budnick said. “Under the Ticketmaster model, fees immediately jumped, often more than doubling … to ensure that Ticketmaster would take home more profit, and the venues received a healthy sum as well,” Budnick said. It’s a model that Ticketmaster still uses to this day, Budnick said. The Biden administration instituted a ban on junk fees that went into effect in 2025, forcing sellers like Ticketmaster to disclose their fees. But while Ticketmaster eliminated certain charges, like its order processing fee, it raised other fees, according to a report from The Guardian earlier this year. As part of the Justice Department’s settlement with Live Nation, the company’s amphitheater shows will need to set a 15% cap on service fees, which could ease financial pressure for concertgoers. But high concert ticket prices go beyond Live Nation. With record sales being less of a secure revenue stream for artists, musicians are relying more on concert sales, while the secondary ticket market has pushed up demand.