So Ticketmaster is getting set to start auctioning tickets to the highest bidder, and the folks over at Metafilter.com are already hard at work debating the ethical, financial and emotional aspects of this event. See, some people believe that tickets shouldn’t be auctioned off, they should be distributed based on an individual’s level of devotion and emotional investment in a band, and money… any amount of money, makes this relationship somehow dirty and less meaningful. Riiiight… Your “relationship” with the band. Whatever… And then there’s some people who see the whole thing as a huge corporate conspiracy and label Ticketmaster as a monopoly, enforcing unfair price discrimination. And finally there are the guys whose response to the conspiracy theorists’ accusations is to accuse _them_ of just liking shitty music and being unwilling to seek out “new and exciting” bands, playing for next to nothing at small clubs so hip and next-level that they disappear into thin, smoke-filled air the minute the last hipster clears out after the show. I don’t know what to make of all these arguments, really, but as a frequent concert goer, I find the whole thing damn, damn amusing… =)