Ever since I was a little girl, Taylor Swift has been my favorite singer. When Swift announced her tour that takes fans through her different musical eras, I immediately started planning what I was going to wear and ensuring I would secure a presale code for the tour. Unfortunately, my efforts failed because I didn’t plan on Ticketmaster’s lack of planning.
With Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” Ticketmaster proved it cannot be trusted as a leading ticket-seller.
In a world where live music is in such high demand, it’s no surprise that companies will do anything to profit as much as they can. Ticketmaster has dominated the live music industry for years and most recently, their ticket-buying process for fans has become increasingly difficult. With dynamic pricing, a system put in place for ticket prices to go up as demand goes up, their systems crashing and ticket fees, buying tickets has begun to feel like a chore.
I dread when my favorite artists’ tickets go on sale because I know how many backflips I’ll have to do just to get a shot at getting tickets. What used to be an exciting experience is now leaving fans upset and frustrated.
I even avoided attempting to get tickets for another artist I liked altogether because I knew the stress and money spent may not even be worth it.
The company also charges a ridiculous amount of money in fees. When you think you are only paying $100 for a ticket, the fees end up making it closer to $300 for the singular ticket. One would think that with the amount of money they charge in fees they would be able to afford to upgrade their systems to handle large amounts of fans. But when fans got in the online queue for Swift’s presale, Ticketmaster claimed their systems couldn’t handle it and they had to pause the queue for upwards of 8 hours, leaving fans waiting around.
Swift shared in an Instagram story post that she and her team asked Ticketmaster numerous times if they could handle the high demand for this tour. The company assured Swift each time that they could handle it, which proved to be a lie when it came time to sell the tickets.
Not only were the wait times long, but their system didn’t require the needed presale code to be entered until you were in the ticket-buying window — this caused over 13 million people who didn’t have the pre-sale code to get in the queue. This resulted in exceedingly long wait times and, for many, no reward for their dedication.
The company has been told numerous times by fans that having people enter the presale code before even getting in the queue will prevent things like this from happening, and as always, they failed to listen.
Ticketmaster also neglected to put aside enough tickets for the general ticket sale that was scheduled for Nov. 17. Instead, the company released all of the tickets during the presale, meaning the general sale had to be canceled completely.
With the general sale being canceled, I felt completely heartbroken knowing that trying to find tickets at face value would be impossible. Many fans, including myself, shed tears and expressed their anger with the company that could’ve done more to prevent such issues from taking place.
Ever since their merger with Live Nation in 2010, Ticketmaster’s prices have only increased and have left no room for other companies to compete. It doesn’t feel like the company genuinely cares if fans get tickets fairly or not. In the end, they know they will reap the benefits and profit from adoring fans.
