Taylor Swift Ticketmaster chaos has made it to the world news headlines. If you are still unversed, the service of the US-based ticket sales company was delayed, and the website crashed, which was enough for the fans to become outrageous. And if you are a hardcore fan of the American singer, you must know which tickets we are talking about. It’s the 2023 Eras tour, of course.
What Happened to the Ticket Presales?
The presale of tickets for Taylor Swift tour of Eras for the public was canceled by Ticketmaster.
Presale Ticketmaster ticket sales opened on Tuesday, November 15, for the Eras tour of Taylor Swift. There was a mad rush as soon as the sales opened for Taylor Swift tickets, and the first-day sale reached up to two million, the most for any artist in the world in a single day.
Though Ticketmaster called it historic and unprecedented, they couldn’t enjoy the rush for long. The website started showing glitches and slow operations and finally crashed.
On Thursday, November 17, Taylor Swift Ticketmaster general sale for Friday was canceled.
Ticketmaster Tried to Manage but Failed
The tickets selling company initially tried hard to deal with the overwhelming situation stating in a blog post that only 15% of customers faced an issue while buying Taylor Swift tickets from their website. They explained in detail in the post how the demand for the tickets broke all the records and partially broke their website.
The site was overloaded with bot attacks and numerous uninvited fans trying to get tickets on the same day added the company, leading to issues faced by pre-registered buyers.
Facts and Figures Produced
- Ticketmaster, in the blog, stated that the total number of system requests reached 3.5 billion, four times the site’s previous peak.
- The two million onsale tickets reserved for the Verified Fans went to legitimate hands, claimed the statement.
- 5 billion Taylor Swift fans registered to buy the tickets.
- 5 million fans were sent invitation codes to buy onsale tickets for the fifty-two shows.
- A similar thing also happened on Wednesday, flooding presale requests by millions of fans, including numerous uninvited ones.
- 15% fans faced issues while interacting on the website, including some losing even already carted tickets due to passcode validation errors.
The ticket sales and distribution company clarified in the post that they keep organizing the biggest shows and events and also explained how they matched the high demands to set new ticket sale records even after the website crash.
Fans got Outrageous
As fans had to wait a long time to get the tickets, many of them just left empty-handed and frustrated.
As Ticketmaster cancel tickets, the mayhem made space for questions like whether tickets were being rolled out appropriately and who finally got the tickets.
Some Republicans and Democrats were also vocal about Ticketmaster’s outsize power in the events and ticketing industry.
The Eras Tour
Background
The famous singer-songwriter couldn’t tour for her studio albums released in the recent past due to the pandemic. It will be her sixth tour, which was named “Lover Fest” in early 2020 when she had to postpone it. The seventh studio album of Taylor Swift, titled “Lover,” was supposed to be supported by the tour then.
Since 2020, there have been three more studio albums named Evermore, Folklore, and Midnights (2022) to mesmerize fans. Additionally, two albums named Fearless and Red, both in Taylor’s version, were re-recorded in 2021.
But the last tour was in 2018, supporting the sixth album named Reputation.
What’s Behind the name?
Now, the singer is back again with the tours, and this time she is doing it to support all her albums, including Midnights, the latest one. The albums Taylor will support through this tour are:-
- Taylor Swift (2006)
- Fearless (2008)
- Speak Now (2010)
- Red (2012)
- 1989 (2014)
- Reputation (2017)
- Lover (2019)
Swift recognized the tour as a journey into all her musical eras and titled it the Eras tour. Taylor announced the tour in November 2022, just two weeks after the release of Midnights.
Details of the Tour
The Taylor Swift tour of all stadiums, first after the Reputation Stadium tour in 2018, will commence from March 17 to August 9, 2023.
The tour will start from Arizona’s Glendale and end in California’s Inglewood. The international venue and dates have yet to be announced, except for two shows in Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium on July 28-29.
Is Ticketmaster Responsible?
The chaos has sparked criticism over Ticketmaster that the company dominated the industry unfairly. Critics alleged that:-
- It charges higher fees
- Profits off the secondary market website
Several questions came out about how the price for Taylor Swift tickets was decided and whether Ticketmaster put some effort into restricting resales.
Is Ticketmaster Running a Monopoly Business?
After Live Nation Entertainment merged with Ticketmaster, critics feared the company becoming overpowered. There have been probes on several matters related to Ticketmaster business operations. Though critics alleged that Ticketmaster is running a monopoly, the fact still needs to be proved. But many are sure about bad customer value on the website.
Swift’s Response
After all these fiascos, the singer wrote on Instagram that there could have been several reasons behind the incident, and she was trying to figure out how the issues could be resolved.
She expressed her dissatisfaction over the chaos, although she didn’t name Ticketmaster specifically, but didn’t restrain herself from mentioning that her team was assured about maintaining such a mad rush properly.
Swift also said she was amazed at people showering love on herself and her albums.
Are the Tickets Still Available?
Taylor Swift Ticketmaster havoc, however, couldn’t totally stop ticket sales. If you are considering being a part of the historical journey, avail the tickets on resale websites such as StubHub. The price range is quite unpredictable, varying from $3,000 to $28,000.
