Many a music fan’s worst fears have come true.

On Jan. 26, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) approved the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. With the merge, Live Nation can now book venues and acts, as well as sell their tickets and t-shirts — without a middleman.

Many are quick to cry foul, fearing price gouging and an eventual monopoly of the music industry. Alarmists and socialists alike are quick to state this will be the end of affordable music and that, by running concerts from the top down, Live Nation will own everything about the artists except the music itself. Is this really any different than what Ticketmaster has already done to live events?

Ticketmaster already has a reputation as being anti-consumer for picking concert-goers’ pockets by charging convenience fees in an inconvenient system . And Ticketmaster was caught selling tickets for sold-out Maple Leaf games to their subsidiary company TicketsNow — a website designed for secondary ticket sales — essentially scalping their own tickets for prices that sometimes exceeded twice the listed amount.

While on the surface this appears to be just another dirty trick of a capitalist juggernaut, considering the number of tickets scalpers purchase and sell through independent brokers or on street corners, it is a worthwhile service. Anyone who has made a clandestine deal with someone in a cheap hat outside an arena knows they risk a high ticket price and the ticket might be bogus.

By creating a reputable brokerage that vouches for the vendor and the tickets, what used to be a risky operation has become a regulated market. Sure, price hikes are inherent to this process, but there are enough sport and music fans who will gladly fork over the extra dough in order to see their favourite team or band.

These are the people responsible for the rise in ticket prices. In our capitalist society, as long as people are willing to pay $250 for an Eagles ticket, prices will reflect that.

Anyone that has used Ticketmaster knows that the actual price of a ticket is substantially more than what is advertised. Between convenience fees (that are far from convenient), venue fees, and shipping ($2.50 just to print a ticket from my own computer? They should be paying me for my paper and toner), Ticketmaster not only makes money from the promoters for selling their tickets, but from us poor saps that are unfortunate enough to enjoy a live show.

However, their gouging stopped there, and we were left with the merchandise booths and beer girls to further pilfer whatever money we had left in our entertainment budget. Regardless of who is employing the vendor at the merchandise booth, a concert shirt will still cost $40. And it’s unlikely they’ll be able to squeeze any more out of us, as even the most die-hard Metallica fan would be hard-pressed to justify a $60-plus t-shirt.

Speaking from an artist’s point of view, the merger is a positive one. After buying out the remainder of his record contract, Jay-Z signed a 10-year, $150-million deal with Live Nation. This gave Live Nation the rights to Jay-Z’s tour and merchandise, as well as the right to release live concert CDs and DVDs. It also gave Jay-Z a fat paycheck and the ability to focus on his music.

By signing with Live Nation, bands have the contractual motivation to continue creating music, even if just so their shows don’t become redundant, start losing money and cost them their contract. Imagine if Guns N’ Roses were signed to Live Nation — Chinese Democracy might have come out a great deal sooner, and Axl might have shown up for that infamous show in Vancouver in ‘02.

But there have been vocal advocates against this merger in the music community, Bruce Springsteen and Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor are among them, fearing the average fan won’t be able to attend their performances.

From the concert-goers perspective, Live Nation puts on a phenomenal show. Not only have they managed to attract stellar acts, they put together great festivals. Ask anyone who was there — the Pemberton Festival (though a little unorganized) had a talented line-up that offered something for music fans of any preference.

Live Nation also supports the Sasquatch Festival, as well as a multitude of previously-independent European festivals.

Will ticket prices go up? It’s likely. While the DoJ has ruled that Live Nation must sell their ticket-selling software to two competitors, and not penalize venues for choosing competitors’ tours over their own, it’s only a matter of time before these smaller companies fade into obscure markets that Live Nation has no interest in chasing.

But, in the end, (for those who can pay) it’s not likely to have any major consequences — either good or bad — on our physical concert-going experience.