What Is The Drama With Taylor Swift & Ticketmaster?

Did you get caught up trying to get Taylor Swift tickets? Here’s an update on the current Ticketmaster situation!

Just like any big tour, it is expected that there will be difficulty getting tickets. There is usually a wait, and tickets generally sell out fast. People go on to a platform selling the tickets before they drop to get their place in line. This would be a familiar situation to many Swifties.

The Eras Tour caused more complications than expected for Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has a “Verified Fan” program that enables people to register beforehand and obtain access to presale tickets. The New York Times reported that apparently, “the company said that 3.5 million people registered for the Verified Fan program, and around 1.5 million of them were given a special access code and ‘invited’ to the sale for Swift’s tour.” What happened to the rest of the two million verified fans, you might ask? They were placed on a waiting list.

Ticketmaster crashed multiple times on November 15 due to bots and fans on the site. People waited on the site for tickets for hours while battling technical issues and rescheduled or canceled presale phases. Popsugar reported that this issue lead Ticketmaster to announce, “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been canceled.”

The tickets from Ticketmaster were on resale sites for $400 to over $22,000. Nosebleed seats that are typically $60 are allegedly being resold for $700. In a Good Morning America article, a fan said that they “found a resale ticket priced at $33,750.”

Concert tickets for Beyonce and John Meyer are also for sale on Ticketmaster. Supporters of these three artists are coming together to prepare to sue Live Nation Entertainment because they are upset.

There was a hearing held by the Senate to address the issue. The President of Ticketmaster, Joe Berchtold, was questioned about the platform. They asked him to justify his organization’s failure to address fan demand during the tour and deal with its bot issue. While the bots were not successful in buying any tickets, the excessive amount of them that were on the website caused it to crash. Both Ticketmaster and Berchtold apologized to Taylor and her fans.

The hearing debated whether Ticketmaster is considered a monopoly in which many witnesses said it is. Berchtold further refuted claims that his business had a monopoly in the ticketing market by claiming that business had “never been more competitive.” Potential solutions were discussed, such as price caps on tickets and getting control over speculative ticket sales.

Unfortunately, Senator Amy Klobuchar stated this is only the beginning of improving ticket sales. We will have to wait to see if any real changes are made to reform ticket distribution for fans.