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When John Winters heard that the rock band R.E.M. would be playing at the Comcast Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, he knew he had to purchase two $50 tickets for the iconic group's performance.

While Winters enjoyed the music, he was less than overjoyed about the extra fees that were tacked onto his seats. Along with the ticket price, Winters also had to pay an additional $18.95 "convenience fee" to online ticket seller Ticketmaster for each ducat, as well as a $5.15 ordering fee.

The cost of printing out his own tickets on his own computer was an additional $2.50 per ticket.

While fees amounting to nearly half the cost of a concert ticket might seem high, hefty surcharges are becoming a fact of life for concert goers.

"It's typical," said Winters, a musician and Bridgewater State College employee who says he's angry over mounting fees for the concerts he enjoys. Ticketmaster, which dominates ticketing for live entertainment and some sporting events across the country, says on its Web site the charges are necessary to provide buyers with the ability to buy their tickets via phone, Internet and through a network of retail locations almost 24 hours a day.

Critics say fees are out of control and that high fees may be driving some music lovers away from the box office.

Tony Kuzminski, who follows the entertainment industry for the Web site antiMusic.com, said convenience charges and associated fees have been steadily escalating.

"In recent years, not only have these convenience fees been skyrocketing, but they verge on obscene," Kuzminski said. "It's one thing to slap a $12 service fee on a ticket, but it's another to charge them $2.50 to print their tickets at home, another $3.50 for parking (at ampitheaters), a building/facility fee and then a processing fee of $4.50."

Kuzminski said that for some events, fees can amount to as much as 75 percent of the face value of the ticket.

Neither Ticketmaster or LiveNation, the owners of the Comcast Center for the Performing Arts, returned calls from a reporter.

According to the Ticketmaster Web site, convenience fees charged to ticket buyers online cover the cost of distributing tickets via the Internet, local retail outlets and by phone. The actual amount of the convenience charge varies by event and is negotiated with arena operators, promoters and others on the basis of cost.

But that isn't the only fee Ticketmaster tacks onto purchases.

Customers who purchased tickets to Saturday's Pearl Jam concert at the Comcast Center were nicked for a $6 building/facility fee in addition to the $12 convenience charge on a $62 ticket.

According to the Ticketmaster Web site, facility charges vary from place to place and are determined by the venue operator. The venue receives all such proceeds. Why, then, did concerts earlier in the week by the Dave Matthews Band at the same venue come with a $12.15 convenience fee, but no facility charge?

Those aren't the only questions that arise after a cursory examination of Ticketmaster's practices.

For instance, if a "convenience charge" is defined by Ticketmaster as a fee billed to cover the cost of distributing its tickets, why do some ticket-buyers at the same event pay more for that convenience than others?

For last Sunday's Stevie Wonder concert at the Comcast Center, purchasers of $75 face value tickets were charged a $12.35 convenience fee in addition to a building and facility charge of $7. But someone who bought a $125 ticket had to shell out $16.15 for the same convenience.

Not every local concert attraction comes with a hefty convenience charge.

At the soon-to-open Showcase Live nightclub, whose tickets are also sold by Ticketmaster, convenience comes at a lower price. An $82 ticket to an Aug. 16 concert by jazz great Al Jarreau carries a convenience charge of only $6.25.

Similarly, an upcoming appearance by Chaka Khan rates only a $5.75 fee added to a $55 ticket.

While Ticketmaster's pricing logic might seem like a riddle wrapped in an enigma, changes are on the way.

LiveNation, the country's largest live entertainment company, plans to drop Ticketmaster when its contract expires at the end of this year. LiveNation has already begun steps to take ticketing in-house.

A LiveNation spokesman did not return a call from a reporter asking how ticket buyers might fare differently under the company's leadership.

Industry observers say high fees are not entirely the ticketing giant's fault. With escalating costs and increased competition for bankable entertainers, promoters and venue operators are increasingly looking to fees as a source of revenue over and above ticket receipts.

Many of the dollars collected by Ticketmaster are shared with those who stage the concerts.

"Artists are requiring larger and larger guarantees, plus a percentage of the profits," said David Herrera, a professor of music business at Belmont University. "Factoring in the hard costs of the entertainment, staging and promotion, about 90 to 95 percent of the ticket costs go to expenses."

But high convenience and handling fees aren't an inevitable result of buying of a live performance ticket.

Steve Butcher, who founded the Seattle-based ticket issuer Brown Paper Tickets, sells tickets online to thousands of events across the country ranging from music conventions to roller derby.

Butcher's formula for covering costs and making a profit is simple: He charges buyers 99 cents per ticket plus 2.5 percent of the face value of each one. For a $125 ticket, that comes to $4.12.

However, Brown Paper Tickets doesn't have the contract to provide tickets for patrons of the Comcast Center or Showcase Live. Those, like most other major entertainment venues around the country, are Ticketmaster's customers.

Carley Borgen, director of marketing for Brown Paper Tickets, says patrons can order their tickets online just like Ticketmaster. The company also uses encryption and changes its ticket stock regularly to protect its transactions and guard against counterfeiting. Brown Paper Tickets also has its own 24-hour call center.

Brown Paper Tickets deals mostly with smaller venues and events that are overlooked by the big guys. But that could change.

In the meantime, Borgen like some other concert-goers, has some choice words for high ticket fees.

"It's not a convenience when you're getting ripped off," she said.

RICK FOSTER can be reached at 508-236-0360 or at rfoster@thesunchronicle.com.