The Eras Tour: We Already Knew You Were Trouble, Ticketmaster

“Dear Reader,” on November 1st, Taylor Swift fans (otherwise known as ‘Swifties’) rejoiced as the pop-star announced her sixth world tour, the Eras Tour. The last time Swift toured was 2018, as the pandemic canceled plans for a Lover tour. While millions of U.S. fans anticipated purchasing tickets to the Eras Tour, many were disappointed by intercepting bots, hours-long queue lines, scarcity of tickets, site crashes, and high fees, all during the tour’s competitive pre-sale on November 15th. The following day, the Capital One cardholder pre-sale repeated this circus. The disastrous tour pre-sales prompted Ticketmaster to cancel the general sale planned for November 18th. Fans were quick to social media to share their outrage, point fingers, and express their disappointment. The Eras Tour debacle has caught the attention of The Department of Justice, as they are said to be launching an investigation against Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for antitrust violations. So, why was the Eras Tour so disastrous?

Let’s begin by breaking down the reason why there was such a high demand for these tickets. Since the pandemic, Swift has released (and re-released) five albums, with her latest, Midnights, dropping this past October. In honor of Swift’s re-recording and re-releasing of her previous albums, the Eras Tour will feature Swift’s biggest hits from each of her twelve studio albums. This would be Swift’s first tour to sample her work across her entire library of repertoire. This would also be the first tour to feature “Taylor’s Version” of her work. What does this mean? In 2018, Swift switched record-labels from Big Machine Records to Universal Music Group so she could own the masters to any new work she created. Her albums at Big Machine Record were sold to Scooter Braun, who acquired Swift’s catalog of music for a mere $300 million. To reclaim her previous work, Swift re-recorded her past albums. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) received massive support, as fans rushed to stream “Taylor’s Version” of her previous music. 

The last time Swift toured was for her album Reputation in 2018. Since then, Swift has control of many of the record-breaking hits and has further grown to be one of the most popular and successful musicians on the planet. Swift has seen massive success since the pandemic, receiving a variety of recognition and awards, including the Album of the Year Grammy Award for Folklore. With Swift’s sky-rocketing success, paired with the fact it has been five years since her last tour, anyone could have anticipated that the Eras Tour presale would be competitive. 

Clearly, Ticketmaster was not “...Ready For It.” Over 3.5 million fans signed up for presale, with only 1.5 million receiving pre-sale codes in their inbox. The remaining fans were put on a waitlist with the hope that they could purchase any unsold tickets during the general sale on November 18th. What these fans didn’t know was that there would be no general sale nor any available tickets. During presale, billions of users attempted to purchase tickets to the Eras Tour. According to the New York Times, “Ticketmaster received 3.5 billion system requests, causing its app to crash for many users; some who were in the process of buying tickets with their codes were unable to complete their transactions.” During the pre-sale alone, over two million tickets were sold, excluding the Capital One cardholder pre-sale that opened the following day. After the two pre-sales, Ticketmaster canceled the general sale citing “lack of inventory.” It is unknown to the public if the tour is completely sold out, leaving fans “Haunted.” 

Problems with Ticketmaster is something fans unfortunately know “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version).” Despite the site’s methods to limit traffic with user specific presale codes, bots and scammers managed to prevail. Once again, fans were disappointed by Ticketmaster’s insufficient security, with many outraged by the site’s ticketing monopoly over the entertainment industry. Fans took to social media to “Speak Now” and express their frustrations, capturing the attention of politicians, including House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Amy Klobuchar, as well as the Justice Department. Yes, you heard that right. The Swifites prompted The Justice Department to open an antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment, focusing on whether or not the company “has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry.” The specific details of this investigation are currently unknown to the public. 

Ticketmaster being a topic of controversy is “Nothing New” since their merger with Live Nation to create Live Nation Entertainment in 2010, and Swift’s Eras Tour debacle isn’t the first time Live Nation Entertainment has been investigated by the law. Wired expands, “The US government had its chance to take action against the firm in 2019. The DOJ found that the company had leveraged its control over the touring business to push venues to use Ticketmaster, a violation of the 2010 consent decree that guided the merger.” The monopoly Ticketmaster has on the live entertainment industry allows Live Nation Entertainment to not prioritize platform updates and charge high fees. However, the recent investigation by the Department of Justice and the social media outcry over the Eras Tour may create some ripples in Live Nation Entertainment. 

While not directly naming Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment, Swift commented on the chaos that erupted during the Eras Tour presale. In an excerpt from Swift’s Instagram response, “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. 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.” According to Wired, “Swift’s tour is not even managed by Live Nation, but by competitor AEG. Still, Ticketmaster was selected instead of AEG’s own ticketing platform AXS.” Ticketmaster’s exclusive deals with many of the country’s largest stadiums result in Swift’s need to trust Ticketmaster as the tour’s official ticketing platform. 

Weren’t one of “The Lucky One(s)” to secure tickets to the Eras Tour? If you have hundreds to thousands of dollars at your disposal, you can! As one of many disappointed fans (who didn’t even receive a presale code), I went on StubHub to see what resale options I could possibly stomach. I searched for two tickets. The cheapest pair available for the MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, Saturday show was $970 each. The most expensive pair? Over $12,000 each. For Swifties, seeing her live may just live in their “Wildest Dreams.” 

Ticketmaster’s days of monopolizing the music industry may be numbered. With the national attention and outcry in response to the Eras Tour’s presale, what is for certain is that Ticketmaster won’t be able to “Shake (this) Off” anytime soon.