Ticketmaster and those *^$#? fees!

As you can tell from the header, I’m a little peeved at Ticketmaster. I write this as I’m looking at my most recent purchase from their Web site.
Can someone please explain to me why the fees are so outrageous when you want to buy a concert ticket???
I know everyone charges fees, but my current beef is with Ticketmaster.
I recently purchased tickets to Musiq and Ledisi at the Warfield in San Francisco on Sept. 18. I had no choice but to buy them online.
I’m the queen of not paying services fees. I avoid them at all costs. I make every effort to go to the venue and buy the tickets in person.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that this time. The Warfield is only open 1½ hours before show time, and I’m also the queen of getting the best seats possible (after sitting in the front row dead center at a concert last year, I’m hooked. See photo at right).
Waiting until the day of the show to buy my tickets is never an option.
The original price of the ticket was $37.50. But wait, there’s that “convenience charge” of $9.60. Oh, hold up, one more fee – an order processing fee of $2.55. My ticket went from $37.50 to $49.65 just like that. Times that by two and it’s $99.30. Almost $100 for two tickets that originally cost $75.
It just burns me up inside that I paid damn near $25 extra for some concert tickets!!! I really would like to know how they determine how much “extra” they are going to charge per ticket and why they continue to get away with gouging people’s wallet.
Ticketmaster is making a killing because they basically have a monopoly on the market. Everyone knows that when it comes to buying a ticket for anything – be it a concert, football game, symphony or ballet – the first place you check is Ticketmaster.
If they had more competition, the charges they saddle us with would have to come down.
Until then, every time I need to buy a ticket, I’ll try my best to find a way around using Ticketmaster.