Taylor Swift, one of the world’s most popular musicians, is currently embroiled in a public dispute with Ticketmaster over issues with ticket sales for her upcoming Eras Tour. Swift’s fanbase, known as “Swifties,” experienced major problems trying to buy tickets for her tour on Ticketmaster in November 2022, sparking widespread outrage and prompting Swift herself to criticize the company. This incident has shone a spotlight on the company’s dominance in the event ticketing industry and its treatment of customers.
What happened with Taylor Swift’s ticket sales?
On November 15, 2022, presale tickets went on sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, her first tour since 2018. There was extremely high demand from fans hoping to see Swift perform her numerous hits live. Over 3.5 million people pre-registered for presale tickets on Ticketmaster, setting a new record for most registrations for an artist.
However, when ticket sales opened, Ticketmaster’s website and apps crashed or encountered long wait times and errors for hundreds of thousands of fans trying to purchase tickets. The volume overwhelmed Ticketmaster’s systems. Many fans who waited hours in online queues were unable to get tickets. Ticketmaster later announced that due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory” they were canceling the general public onsale scheduled for November 18.
Swift reacted angrily, posting on her Instagram story: “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.”
Why were Taylor Swift fans so upset?
The ticket sale debacle left many Taylor Swift fans upset and disappointed for several reasons:
– High demand and low supply. There were millions of fans vying for only around 900,000 tickets at 52 stadium shows on the tour. Supply was far lower than demand, meaning most fans went home empty-handed.
– Bot attacks and scalpers. There were many reports of ticket scalpers and bots attacking the website to snap up tickets, making it harder for genuine fans to buy them. StubHub had hundreds of resale tickets up within minutes.
– Technical problems. Fans reported endless queues, website crashes, unclear instructions, and error messages on Ticketmaster’s site and apps that prevented ticket purchases.
– Lack of transparency. Ticketmaster provided little clarity around when and how tickets were being sold. Their updates were vague and confusing.
– Canceled public onsale. After presales issues, Ticketmaster canceled the general public onsale just days before it was scheduled to happen.
– Loyal fans felt cheated. Swift’s most dedicated longtime supporters felt the process was unfair after their loyalty and efforts to get tickets early were unrewarded.
The technical issues and lack of tickets fundamentally undermined the fan experience Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster were trying to create. Instead of a rewarding feeling, fans felt frustrated and betrayed.
What has Taylor Swift said about the ticket problems?
On November 18, Taylor Swift posted a story on Instagram expressing her anger about the situation:
“I’m not 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,” she wrote. “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.”
She sympathized with disappointed fans, saying: “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.”
Swift also strongly hinted that she might take future tours into her own hands: “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.”
How has Ticketmaster responded?
Ticketmaster issued a statement blaming “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory” for the sales issues and presale disruptions.
They claimed a record 3.5 million people pre-registered for presale, with overall ticket demand 2x their previous peak. Their site had 1.5 billion total system requests, driving unprecedented traffic on their site.
Ticketmaster said the Eras onsale had the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day, with 2 million sold. They pledged to evolve their systems to address demand spikes in the future.
However, Ticketmaster hasn’t taken any major accountability for the lack of stability and poor contingency planning on their platforms. Their statements have frustrated Swift’s fans by seeming to shift blame to unprecedented demand while glossing over their technical and inventory issues.
What is Taylor Swift’s history with Ticketmaster?
Taylor Swift has had a rocky relationship with Ticketmaster for years:
– 1989 Tour controversies: Ticketmaster’s handling of tickets for Swift’s huge 1989 World Tour in 2015 also sparked ire from fans over high ticket costs and scalpers snapping up tickets. However, this was before Swift had as much leverage in the industry.
– Reputation Stadium Tour: In 2018, Swift used Ticketmaster again for her Reputation tour. Some fans had issues getting tickets and there were widespread complaints about dynamic pricing driving up costs for seats closer to the stage.
– Lover Fest cancellation: Swift canceled her 2020 Lover Fest tour scheduled with Ticketmaster due to the pandemic. Refunds caused frustrations for fans.
– Messy dynamic pricing: Ticketmaster has used ‘dynamic pricing’ on Swift’s tours to adjust prices based on demand, leading to ultra-high ticket prices for close seats that only scalpers can profit from. As Swift’s fame grew, so did fan distrust of Ticketmaster’s motivations.
While Swift has partnered with Ticketmaster for tours for over a decade, she has become increasingly vocal against their practices as her stardom exploded. The Eras Tour presale may have been the final straw for her patience with the company.
Why are Taylor Swift fans calling for a Ticketmaster boycott?
After the Eras Tour presale debacle, some Taylor Swift fans started calling for a boycott of Ticketmaster. They argue that Ticketmaster’s dominance in the ticketing industry led to the lack of contingency planning that ruined Swifties’ tour experiences.
Reasons for boycotting Ticketmaster include:
– Monopoly power. Ticketmaster controls 70%+ of primary event ticketing and has no major competitors in the US. This gives them little incentive to innovate or improve.
– Service fees. Ticketmaster is notorious for exorbitant services fees that inflate ticket costs. Fees can equal 50%+ of a ticket’s base price.
– Anti-consumer practices. Fans accuse Ticketmaster of tactics like intentionally understocking tickets to drive up resale demand on their secondary market exchanges. Their dynamic pricing model also leads to inequitable access.
– Bot prioritization. Ticketmaster doesn’t do enough to combat scalper bots and reseller groups that snatch up tickets at real fans’ expense.
– Lack of accountability. The company rarely takes responsibility or changes course when fans complain about unfair treatment. Their statements tend to blame record demand and deflect criticism.
While Ticketmaster maintains dominance, boycotters believe applying consumer pressure could prompt reforms that improve conditions for real fans and force the company to address its shortcomings. But the boycott also recognizes that Ticketmaster’s entrenched monopoly in ticketing excludes many viable alternatives for seeing major touring artists like Swift perform live.
Is Ticketmaster a monopoly?
While Ticketmaster is not a pure monopoly, it holds clear monopoly power in primary event ticketing:
– Market share: Ticketmaster controls over 70% of the primary event ticketing market in the United States as of 2022 through its various platforms.
– Barriers to entry: The ticketing business has high barriers to entry, including securing venue contracts, absorbing and scaling costs, building technology, and establishing brand recognition. These factors make it extremely difficult for competitors to challenge Ticketmaster.
– Vertical integration: Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, owns Ticketmaster and also owns or contracts most major concert venues. This vertical integration between venues and ticketing consolidates Ticketmaster’s dominance.
– Anti-competitive concerns: Ticketmaster has faced anti-trust inquiries in the past over anti-competitive practices like contractual lock-ups that freeze out rivals. In 2010, their merger with Live Nation was approved with conditions to maintain competition. But calls for antitrust action have only grown since.
– No viable substitutes: While some ticketing platforms like AXS, SeatGeek, or Eventbrite exist, none come remotely close to challenging Ticketmaster’s reach or market share in primary ticketing for top venues and artists.
So while not technically a pure monopoly, Ticketmaster’s overwhelming market power, lack of substitutes, and anti-competitive moats have allowed them to operate virtually unchallenged – and face little pressure to innovate or improve their services for fans or event organizers. Their handling of Swift’s tour has only amplified calls for Ticketmaster’s monopoly-like dominance of live music to be addressed and curbed.
Could Swift choose another ticketing company?
In theory, Taylor Swift likely has enough star power to choose another ticketing company besides Ticketmaster, avoiding their services entirely to distribute tickets for her tours and concerts. However, in practice her options are limited:
– Venue agreements: Most major venues have exclusive ticketing agreements with Ticketmaster. She would be limited to only playing independent venues.
– Scalability concerns: Other ticketing companies may lack the sales capability to handle demand for an artist as popular as Swift. The sales traffic for a global superstar singer would stress most systems.
– Exclusivity benefits: Large artists benefit from Ticketmaster’s ability to block scalpers and unofficial ticket sales through binding ticket-holder agreements.
– Global reach: Alternative ticketing companies don’t have sales reach across global markets for massive international tours.
– Financial incentives: Ticketmaster may offer promoters and venues financial incentives to only use their ticketing services. Their exclusive deals may involve kickbacks.
Unless Swift were to exclusively play small venues and markets, partner with multiple localized ticketing companies, and forgo the benefits of a global unified ticketing strategy, her options to entirely replace Ticketmaster are slim in the current industry landscape. However, the pressure she is applying may force incremental improvements, concessions, and increased transparency from Ticketmaster when she partners with them. For now, Swift doesn’t seem ready to entirely abandon using Ticketmaster for her tours, but the calls for replacing them will likely continue to mount among her fanbase after the Eras onsale controversy.
Could Swift’s tour play non-Ticketmaster venues?
While it would be incredibly difficult for Taylor Swift to exclusively partner with a non-Ticketmaster ticketing company for a full global stadium tour, she could selectively route parts of her tour through venues not partnered with Ticketmaster. Here are some of the largest US venues she could look at that don’t use Ticketmaster:
Venue | Capacity | Location | Ticketing |
---|---|---|---|
Sofi Stadium | 70,000 | Los Angeles, CA | AXS |
Rose Bowl | 92,542 | Pasadena, CA | AXS |
FedExField | 82,000 | Washington, DC | SeatGeek |
Lucas Oil Stadium | 70,000 | Indianapolis, IN | SeatGeek |
PayPal Park | 40,000 | San Jose, CA | SeatGeek |
Routing part of her tour through major non-Ticketmaster venues would allow Swift to make a statement and show her willingness to work outside their ticketing ecosystem when feasible. However, these venues represent just a fraction of the stadiums and arenas Ticketmaster dominates, so her ability to build a complete tour avoiding their influence remains unlikely for now. But calls from Swift, artists, and fans to improve competition in ticketing may gradually move the needle industry-wide.
How could technology improve the ticket buying experience?
There are several emerging technologies that could help improve the ticket buying process for fans and reduce incidents like the issues seen during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale:
– Blockchain-backed ticketing: Blockchain technology could allow tickets to be publicly tracked on a ledger in ways that help limit scalping and resales. It could provide more transparency around where tickets end up.
– Smart contracts: Programmatic smart contracts could enforce ticket purchase limits, prevent bots, and add flexibility around transfers and refunds.
– Machine learning: AI and machine learning could help dynamically adjust to traffic spikes and detect suspicious patterns that indicate bot activity.
– Queue optimization: Advanced queue systems could improve prioritization of wait times and avoid sudden crashes by balancing loads. Queues could also be fairer and first-come, first-served based on verifiable registration order.
– Enhanced security: Multi-factor identity verification, facial recognition, and other enhanced ID measures could help filter out bad actors.
– Predictive analytics: Data analytics and predictive modeling could give platforms insights around expected demand and ideal inventory levels for an ideal fan experience.
While these technologies all have limitations currently, in the future they could combine to provide a far smoother, more transparent, and more equitable ticket buying process – helping to fulfill the promise of putting actual fans first.
Conclusion
The debacle around Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour ticket sales has exposed the deep frustrations consumers have with Ticketmaster. It has amplified calls to seriously address the company’s entrenched dominance and broken incentives in ticketing live events. While Swift’s options to entirely avoid Ticketmaster are limited, she has considerable influence as the world’s top artist to apply pressure for better fan experiences. Technological solutions also show promise to improve ticket buying if broadly implemented. With concerts returning after the pandemic, the time is right to demand an event ticketing ecosystem that genuinely puts fans first.