Paying For Fan Site Membership

There appears to be a rather evil pattern developing of making people pay membership fees to artist’s fan site (Elton John and Sting are two examples of this). Although paying for fan clubs is nothing new, in the past the membership cost has been a nominal amount which has been to largely to cover the cost of sending magazines etc. However in this day and age of the web where these sort of costs are relatively small, and most organisations/artists have the cost of web presence anyway, asking $60 (~£45) is outragious. So what do the memberships bring, largely the chance to buy concert tickets before the general public, or should I say those of us with slightly less deeply lined pockets. These very same artists alse seem to have the most expensive ticket prices, this certainly holds true for Elton John. I think that those who subscribe to the artists news groups getting advance ticket access to be a good thing, as it means the genuine fans get best seats, not an unreasonable gesture for fan loyalty (as per Peter Gabriel).

rant over.