The musical men in my life are costing me a small fortune. Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits must think I’m made of money. In the past 12 months the four of them have taken almost €500 from me, just for the privilege of seeing them live.

Being a music fan in Ireland is an expensive habit and it rarely provides value for money. There are some exceptions, particularly Springsteen, who continues to deliver energetic performances in three-hour sets that put artists half his age to shame.

I can’t say the same for Clapton. Bad enough that tickets for his gig cost almost €80, but then the concert at Malahide Castle was a wash-out. The heavens opened, the PA system packed up twice and Clapton didn’t play a single hit from the Cream era. The next time he plays in Dublin I’ll be at home with his greatest hits and a glass of wine.

When Tom Waits takes to the stage in the Phoenix Park this week I’ll be expecting a memorable experience, not least because at €131.25, excluding handling charges, it is the most expensive concert ticket I’ve ever bought. In desperation to see one of his three gigs, I forgot that Irish fans are paying far more than concert-goers in other European countries. It’s a family paper so I can’t give full expression to the feelings I had when when a friend told me she’d bagged a ticket to see Waits in Paris for €69.70 which, together with a no-frills return flight, was a cheaper package than my night in the park.

If I could muster any enthusiasm for Coldplay and their particular brand of world-weary pop, I wouldn’t have the same financial problems. The band will play the new Point Theatre in Dublin’s docklands in December, with tickets priced from €54.80. Alright, if Coldplay were performing in my back garden I’d close the windows and pull the blinds, but credit where it’s due. Chris Martin and his colleagues are bringing some sort of normality back to ticket pricing.

Coldplay could prove to be a turning point for Irish music fans, who now have a yardstick by which to judge ticket prices. If Coldplay demand less in fees, then surely others will follow their lead?

The 13,000-capacity Point is going to need a lot of business and market economics would suggest that this means prices will become more competitive. Its re-opening is good news for other reasons too. The advent of a decent indoor venue means the big three promoters — MCD, Aiken Promotions and POD Concerts — now have an alternative to those muddy outdoor venues. Bringing the music fans back inside should mean big savings on venue and production costs with no need for scaffolding, stage-building, car parks or Portaloos.

The live-music set has never been so lucrative, even luring names like Leonard Cohen out of retirement. While he declared himself legally broke some years back, the 73-year-old will have recouped some of those losses from his three sell-out shows last month. How times have changed. Two years ago fans of Cohen had to content themselves with a tribute band. Now, according to his official website, he’ll be back on December 1, to play the Point.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the venue will be able to fly in great musicians, like Cohen, and keep the costs down, like Coldplay. Spurred on by Live Nation, the self-professed “future of the music business”, the partnership should inject some healthy competition to a live-music scene which thrived on the Point’s absence. As the docklands’ building underwent an ¤80m facelift, every man and his dog was busy renting out fields and applying for beer licenses in order to host their own extravaganzas. Some “gigs” consisted of little more than a makeshift stage in a lumpy field and a list of unknown acts, with entrepreneurial locals selling cans of Dutch Gold from the back of Hiace vans.

Marquees have become a staple fixture while the RDS, with its awful acoustics, secured a bigger share than it should have of the music market. Now it can get back to doing what it does best - hosting horse shows and exams. There were about 70 outdoor festivals in Ireland last year and about the same number are scheduled this year. But in this saturated market, Ireland is no longer the cash cow it once was.

Prince found this out when he cancelled his Croke Park gig in June. Hailed as his final tour, tickets cost from €66.50 to €125.50 and appeared to be selling well when the Purple One decided to pull out a week before the gig.

Fans were confused and even MCD, the promoter, seemed nonplussed. It apologised and said the 55,161 patrons who purchased tickets would be fully refunded. In other words, Prince failed to sell out the stadium with its capacity of 82,500. An inglorious send-off for a career spanning three decades.

A way to pep up sluggish ticket sales is to reduce prices. This is a pretty basic rule of supply and demand, a rule that the heavyweights of the music industry have already exploited in order get away with high charges. Loyal fan bases will always ensure a stampede for tickets and some people can literally be charged what music promoters like.

They may now have squeezed every last cent out of here, however. Last month this newspaper produced a survey of concert prices around Europe for 10 acts performing in Ireland this summer. In all but two cases, Ireland is the most expensive. Only Danish fans are paying more to see Cohen and Dolly Parton.

It’s time for music fans to get off the wet grass and take a stand. They could look to our European neighbours for guidance. When Barbara Streisand charged Irish fans up to €885 for a one-off concert last year, we coughed up. But the gig, billed as a “once in a lifetime experience”, prompted thousands of complaints to MCD over the price of tickets, confused seating plans and traffic delays. And how did we deal with that debacle? Set up a special committee to investigate, of course.

The Italians do things differently. When Babs tried to charge up to €900 for a Rome gig, Italian fans rebelled and urged the city’s government to refuse the singer use of a stadium. After a public outcry, Streisand cancelled the concert. It sent an important message to other artists that trying it on with ridiculous charges in Italy could end in tears.

It may even have worked. Fans of Tom Waits there will pay just €39.50 while we pay more than three times that.

Sarah Carey is away