Swift is not happy
Taylor Swift has spoken out about the Ticketmaster debacle surrounding her The Eras Tour. The pop star lashed out at the company on Instagram on Friday (Nov 18th) after their system crashed during the Verified Fans presale that left millions without tickets and the public on sale canceled.
“Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” she writes.
She continues, “I’m not going going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
“And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”
Ticketmaster says more than two million tickets were sold on November 15th, marking the most ever sold for an artist in a single day. The company says 1.5 million Verified Fans were sent codes for the on sale, but they received 3.5 billion total system requests which is four times more than the previous week.
Two days after the Verified Fan presale crashed the system, the company released a public statement explaining the issue.
“The biggest venues and artists turn to us because we have the leading ticketing technology in the world – that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and clearly for Taylor’s on sale it wasn’t. But we’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience. Especially for high demand on sales, which continue to test new limits,” they write.
That statement is longer live on the company’s website as of this writing.
The US Justice Department is said have opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation over concerns the company has abused its power. The investigation will focus on whether Live Nation Entertainment maintains a monopoly over the multi-billion dollar industry, and was already in progress before the Taylor Swift ticket debacle. Neither the Justice Department nor Live Nation would comment on the matter.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and US Rep. Bill Pascrell have also inquired into the company.
The White House also recently announced it’s moving closer to federally mandating the end of “junk fees” or “convenience fees” not being disclosed before the start of purchase. They’re pursuing an all-inclusive ticketing model across the board.
Demand for Swift concert tickets was huge before going on sale. Swift initially announced 27 dates and then added eight and then 17 new dates within two weeks. Swift will play multiple nights in all cities, tallying to 52 shows in US stadiums in 2023.
