The pop star shifts the responsibility for the ticket sales failure to Ticketmaster.
Demand for Taylor Swift’s tour exceeded all expectations and crashed Ticketmaster’s system. PDO
Pop megastar Taylor Swift commented on the ticket sales fiasco of his upcoming tour, saying that Ticketmaster, which was in charge of sales, had assured in advance that it was prepared for high demand. Swift took to her Instagram story to apologize to disappointed fans who were left without tickets after Ticketmaster shut down ticket sales.
– It goes without saying that I am very protective of my fans. “It’s really hard for me to trust an outsider with these relationships and loyalties, and it’s painful for me to watch mistakes happen,” Swift said in a statement.
The ticketing company Ticketmaster announced on Friday that it has canceled ticket sales for Swift’s tour. The tickets were supposed to go on general sale, but the demand for advance tickets has been exceptionally strong and the number of remaining tickets is not enough to meet it.
Ticketmaster’s actions have been widely questioned, as its website crashed when fans tried to buy advance tickets. Swift blames Ticketmaster for failed ticket sales.
– I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them several times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured that they could, says Swift.
– For those who didn’t get tickets, I can only say that I hope to offer more opportunities to get together and sing these songs.
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The US Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Live Nation’s monopoly-like status and possible abuses. EPA/AOP
The Ministry of Justice is investigating
The case has also caught the attention of US lawmakers. Senator Richard Blumenthal requires the US Department of Justice to investigate competition in the ticketing industry.
– Consumers deserve better than this kind of anti-hero use, Blumenthal says, referring to the single from Swift’s latest album Anti-Hero.
New York Times said on Friday, citing sources, that the Ministry of Justice has indeed started an investigation targeting Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. According to the New York Times, the investigation will determine whether Live Nation has abused its large competitive position.
According to NYT, the investigation is extensive and has already started before Friday’s fiasco. The Ministry of Justice has not commented on the matter.
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Taylor Swift is the undisputed number one name in the music world today. Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection/All Over Press
Unfathomable demand
In 2017, Ticketmaster created a “verified fans” system to help the platform deal with situations of huge demand. However, the system was overwhelmed when more than 3.5 million people registered as verified fans under Swift’s tour.
– In the past, “verified fans” invitation codes have worked because we have been able to control the number of ticket buyers arriving on the site. This time, a staggering number of bot attacks and unverified fans drove unprecedented traffic to our site, Ticketmaster explained in a blog post CNN’s by. The article has since been removed from the page.
Ticketmaster announced Thursday that more than two million tickets were sold for Swift’s tour on the first day of sales on Tuesday. This is an all-time record. According to the company, ticket demand for the tour was double that of the five biggest tours of 2022 and the Super Bowl combined.
– Based on the traffic of our website, Taylor should do more than 900 stadium gigs. That would mean a stadium show every night for the next 2.5 years, Ticketmaster said Thursday.
Swift is one of the most popular artists in the world. He recently became the first artist to occupy every top 10 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 since his most recent album Midnights published in October.