Concert tickets continue to be a hot topic, and the price of PJ Harvey's Dublin concert - up to €64.80 plus booking fees - has generated much heat on The Ticket's On The Record blog.

Do artists know how much their fans are having to pay to see them live?"I'm always aware of what my tickets are priced at," says Harvey. "That's something I think every artist is involved in. At least I am."

Do artists have a say in how much is charged for their gig?"I can't answer for other people, but I've always taken an active part in knowing what's going on. I don't want to feel that my work is being presented in a way that I knew nothing about, if you know what I mean, so I've always taken an interest in what's happening in that way."

The perception is that Irish audiences are paying more to see their favourite artists than UK or European audiences. What do you think?"I was looking through Time Out and looking at the ticket prices, and I think it's the same deal here (in the UK). Quite a few tickets are up in the £40 range, which is about €60, isn't it? So it does seem to be here as well.

"I think quality more than quantity is important. A lot of artists are suffering from the way that there are less and less record sales, so these days it is the concerts that bring in the income.

"And it's going to become even harder and harder for musicians to be able to afford to do what they do, which is probably a large part of why people have to charge more [ for concert tickets], just because they have to live, to do what they're doing. It's a strange offset, because obviously people can get music for free if they want it, whereas if you want to see a person live, then you're gonna have to pay a bit more.

"But to answer you're question as to whether it's going up too high, I really don't know. What do you think?"