Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a 52-stop showcase encompassing all 10 of her studio albums, provoked massive buzz when Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, broke from high demand and got accused of botched sales of tickets.
“I tried getting tickets for the Eras Tour,” Sophia Lim (11), Taylor Swift fan, said. “I can confidently say that it was not the most pleasant experience, however, because I waited three hours in queue just for Ticketmaster to crash.”
Fans complained that the queue was not progressing even after hours of waiting and that the site would not allow them to log in when it was their turn to purchase their tickets. Ticketmaster reassured fans on Twitter and acknowledged the problem: “Some of you may be having issues with the site this morning—we are working on it and will let you know.”
The problem persisted, however, and the platform abruptly rescheduled the ticket sales mid-through the ticketing session, confusing many fans. Ticketmaster did not provide any further details about what the issue was and what the new sale dates were.
Ticketmaster pointed to a tweet from its France unit saying that Eras ticket sales had been “disrupted by a third-party provider” and announced that the sales were paused as soon as the company had become aware that fans were dealing with issues acquiring tickets.
“Ticketmaster did the worst job handling this situation,” Grace Choi (11), Ticketmaster user, said. “They blamed everything on a so-called ‘third-party provider,’ which I am not even sure truly exists, and ignored fans’ anger. That is not something a responsible platform would do.”
This is not the first time Ticketmaster has experienced difficulties with Taylor Swift ticketing. In November 2022, the platform’s Verified Fan pre-sale program crashed, logging users out, and keeping them frozen in the queue for hours. Ticketmaster attributed the crash to heavy site traffic, but users cited poor customer service.
Due to Ticketmaster’s exclusive deals with a majority of US live venues, AEG Presents, Swift’s tour promoter, was obliged to work with them. Throughout December 2022, this debate was brought to court for many violations including intentional deception, fraud, price fixing, and antitrust.
Fans have also brought it to social media to address this issue, demanding a solution and complaining that the company had not adequately prepared for the demand through Tweets, Reels, and TikTok videos.
“This has been happening way too often,” Alex Lee (11), music enthusiast, said. “I think it is totally reasonable how people are reacting to this fiasco. It is true that Ticketmaster needs to start being more careful and detailed in their service.”
