Who's doing OK business? Just about everybody else, including Tim McGraw, Barenaked Ladies, Janet Jackson, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, the heavy-metal package tour known as Ozzfest, Matchbox Twenty and "Area: One," Moby's eclectic traveling festival featuring the Roots and Outkast.

The escalating cost of concerts, however, is definitely a factor. It is symptomatic of the problem that the 7 percent increase in concert prices this year is a comparatively small one. By contrast, prices jumped 30 percent between 1998 and 1999. (The relatively low rise this year is attributed to the efforts of some young acts to keep ticket prices low.)

But that only takes into account the face value of the tickets. What continues to spin out of control are the add-on facility, parking and Ticketmaster fees. The last of these alone can add $8, $12, sometimes even $20 to each ticket purchased. (When Pearl Jam led their ill-fated crusade against Ticketmaster in the mid-'90s, service fees were roughly $5 per ticket.)

Some of that money ends up in the pockets of artists, but most of it goes to Ticketmaster and concert goliath Clear Channel Entertainment, formerly known as SFX Entertainment.

Clear Channel is busy trying to recoup the $4 billion it spent over the past few years essentially purchasing the American concert business lock, stock and barrel, snatching up concert promoters and venues across the country. Clear Channel, which runs tours by 'N Sync, U2, Destiny's Child and Janet Jackson, sold 35 million concert tickets last year. (The company is also the largest radio station owner in America, with nearly 1,200 signals nationwide.)

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Earlier this year Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays insisted the company's live entertainment division would deliver double-digit growth. Cynics wonder if that growth will come entirely from its service fees.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a lawn ticket purchased over the phone for the upcoming Barenaked Ladies show at Clear Channel's Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine, Calif., had a face value of $14.25. Yet after add-on charges, the ticket actually cost $29.70. That's right, the service fees cost more than the actual ticket.

Perhaps that's the perfect snapshot of the ailing music industry as it lurches through what might turn out to be a year to forget.

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