Technical problems have caused Taylor Swift ticket prices to skyrocket. Millions of fans reportedly descended on the Ticketmaster website on Tuesday (November 15) to snag tickets to the musician’s first tour in half a decade. Due to the horrendous interest, the site could not be reached at times, at least long waiting times were guaranteed.
Empty hands and full pockets
Some reported online queues of up to eight hours. Others complained that they had been thrown out of the queues on numerous occasions. For the majority, the purchase attempt ended in disappointment. Particularly clever bag cutters wanted to turn their luck into money: on ticket exchanges such as Stubhub, seats were offered for moon prices of up to 22,700 dollars.
Ticketmaster: “Historically Unprecedented Demand”
Ticketmaster said in a statement that “historically unprecedented demand” for Swift’s 52-day US tour has resulted in “intermittent issues” that the company is working flat out to fix. The start of advance sales for the concerts on the US west coast was finally delayed by three hours. Even politicians reacted to the malaise. David Cicilline, a Democratic representative in the House of Representatives, tweeted: “Ticketmaster’s excessive waiting times and fees are completely unacceptable.” He also criticized the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
.@Ticketmaster‘s excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today’s @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem.
It’s no secret that Live Nation Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly.
— Congressman David N. Cicilline (@RepCicilline) November 15, 2022
Taylor Swift’s latest album MIDNIGHTS was released in October. Her “Eras” tour of North America is scheduled to begin in March 2023 and conclude in Los Angeles in August. International performances have been promised, but details are not yet known.