Ok, so you know your favorite artist has a tour date coming up in a few months in your city, and you want to buy tickets to the show. Where do you go?
Buying tickets online
I have a list of several places where you can buy tickets online. Some of them are where you buy direct, and others are brokers that buy good seats to popular shows and offer them for a marked up price. The biggest Ticketing company is without a doubt, Ticketmaster. You can search by artist or venue. You do pay an additional fee, on top of the price of the ticket, but it's nowhere near what a broker charges. Of course, the broker probably has front row seats, so you have to decide what is more important; just seeing the show, or being right up front.
If you notice on the Ticketmaster site, many tours will do a pre-sale online, so you can find the dates of the pre-sale to the show you are looking to purchase tickets for and get them ahead of the people walking up to the Ticketmaster sites in person. Some also list fan club pre-sale dates, so it might benefit you to look into your favorite artist's fan club information on their website and see if they offer pre-sale tickets to members.
Another Ticket agency is Tickets.com. Like Ticketmaster, they allow you to search by artist or venue. You pay a fee on top of the ticket price, but again, it's not the same as buying through a broker.
Fan Clubs
To join or not to join? It's up to you to decide. For example, Tracy Byrd's fan club is totally online. Members receive two meet and greet passes per year, access to message boards, Tracy's online journal, Fan Club and Tour Merchandise, exclusive audio streams and downloads as well as contests, a newsletter and more. Alan Jackson's fan club includes a membership card, an 8x10 exclusive photo, three pages of Alan Jackson facts, a newsletter, discounted merchandise ordered through the fan club and through the online store, and up to four preferred seats at an Alan Jackson show. So, every fan club is different.
Another fan club benefit that many artists offer is the chance to attend the Fan Club Party, held during CMA Music Festival each year. The parties are a way to get to meet your favorite artists up close and personal, listen to them perform in an intimate setting, and get to know more about them. While not ALL artists have Fan Club Parties, most newer artists do. Check out your particular artist's website, to see if they include Fan Club Parties as a benefit to membership.
Check out my Fan Club Listing for many of the most popular country artists.