Taylor Swift announced her first tour in over 4 years, called The Eras Tour, which is scheduled to kick off in March 2023. However, the ticket sale process through Ticketmaster has been filled with issues, leading to public outrage from fans who were unable to get tickets.
What issues happened during the Ticketmaster ticket sale?
The issues started right when the pre-sale began on November 15, 2022. Ticketmaster’s site crashed and fans reported wait times of over 5 hours just to access ticket buying options. Even after waiting, many fans were unable to get tickets due to technical errors on Ticketmaster’s site.
Things got even worse when the general public ticket sale opened on November 18, 2022. Ticketmaster’s site crashed again due to the huge demand. The company later announced that the general public sale was cancelled due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory”.
Across the pre-sale and general sale dates, fans complained about Ticketmaster’s site crashing, endless queues, presale codes that didn’t work, and not being able to access tickets despite waiting for hours. Ticketmaster apologized and cited the record-breaking demand for Taylor Swift tickets as the reason for the issues.
How has Ticketmaster explained the issues?
Ticketmaster has stated that Taylor Swift’s tour broke records for most tickets sold on their platform in a single day, with over 3.5 million tickets sold on the first day of pre-sale. They mentioned unprecedented traffic on their site leading to crashes and long wait times.
For the general public on-sale, over 14 million people tried to buy tickets, which caused their site to crash again. Ticketmaster explained that they didn’t have enough ticket inventory to meet the extreme demand.
They mentioned several factors contributing to the high demand and lack of ticket availability:
- Taylor Swift is immensely popular and it’s her first tour in 5 years
- She is playing large stadiums with 90,000+ capacity
- Many more fans registered for presale codes compared to past tours
- Bots and scalpers also targeted this high demand tour
Ticketmaster apologized for the poor experience and said they are working to improve their systems to better handle large demand. However, many are still skeptical of their explanations.
What has been the public and media response?
The response has been extremely negative towards Ticketmaster. Fans are outraged at the handling of ticket sales and inability to get tickets fairly. There are growing allegations of Ticketmaster prioritizing high-priced tickets over regular fans.
Notable responses include:
- #TicketmasterScandal trended on Twitter with over 150k tweets
- Multiple news outlets published reports criticizing Ticketmaster
- High-profile figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bill Paxton condemned Ticketmaster
- Taylor Swift herself said her team was assured multiple times by Ticketmaster that they could handle the demand.
Many are calling for an investigation into Ticketmaster’s operations and anti-trust violations. There is a push for more competition in the ticketing industry.
What role does Ticketmaster’s dominance in ticketing play?
Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticketing company and has major exclusivity deals with large venues and promoters like LiveNation. They sell tickets for 70% of major concert venues in the US.
Critics argue that Ticketmaster’s dominance in the ticketing industry leads to anti-consumer practices. Since they have few competitors, Ticketmaster can get away with high fees and poor customer service.
Some key points on their industry dominance:
- Ticketmaster has a near monopoly in ticketing in the US.
- They merged with LiveNation in 2010, giving them control over artists, venues, promotions.
- Tickets sold on Ticketmaster often have processing fees that are 30% or more of the ticket’s face value.
- Fans and consumer groups accuse them of monopolistic practices and predatory ticket pricing.
Their dominance in ticketing likely aggravated the issues during Taylor Swift’s ticket sale. Lack of competition allowed them to operate with underwhelming infrastructure that failed under high demand.
Is Ticketmaster doing anything to address the backlash?
Ticketmaster has apologized for the poor experience fans faced trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets. They published a statement saying they are working to improve their systems to better handle spikes in demand.
Some steps they took include:
- Adding capacity and making upgrades to prevent website crashes in the future.
- Implementing new technology to monitor, identify, and reject bots.
- Bringing in external experts and tech firms to advise improvements.
- Replacing outdated customer service phone systems to avoid long wait times.
However, many are still skeptical if these changes will lead to meaningful improvements. The outcry following the Swift ticket sale debacle has damaged Ticketmaster’s reputation. Lawmakers are also considering legislative action to increase oversight on the ticketing industry.
What are the broader implications of this situation?
This Ticketmaster controversy has brought some bigger questions into focus:
- Fairness in ticket access: The situation reinforced criticism that average fans are deprived of fair access to tickets due to predatory practices favoring scalpers and high-priced sales.
- Lack of competition: Ticketmaster’s dominance in ticketing without sufficient competition or regulation is under scrutiny.
- Transparency in dynamic pricing: More artists and lawmakers want transparency on Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model which leads to highly inflated costs.
- Bot attacks: The prevalence of bots snatching up tickets immediately causes concerns about the ethical usage of technology.
- Celebrity influence: Swift’s large fanbase and cultural clout drove exceptional interest in her tour, showing how celebrity can focus a national spotlight.
The ticket sale debacle has started larger conversations around these topics in the entertainment and technology sectors. Meaningful reforms may be initiated to improve the situation for consumers.
Conclusion
The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco unveiled deep flaws in ticketing systems plagued by insufficient competition, lack of transparency, unethical tech, and corporate greed. Average fans suffered due to Ticketmaster’s inability to handle exceptionally high demand for Swift’s tour reveal.
While Ticketmaster cites record sales and site traffic as the reason for issues, their explanations fail to satisfy. The situation reiterated the company’s pattern of anti-consumer practices that take advantage of their dominance in ticketing. Swift’s cultural impact and engaged fanbase brought these problems into sharp focus.
In the aftermath, Ticketmaster faces immense criticism, reputational damage, and calls for reform. The saga may catalyze positive changes in ticketing like better regulation, fairer access, and increased transparency. Only time will tell if meaningful improvements emerge that prioritize fans over corporate profits in the ticketing industry.
