On Nov. 1, Taylor Swift announced her next tour – The Eras Tour. With Swift being the American Music Awards Artist of the Decade, this is a big deal. Fans were putting their blood, sweat, and tears into the presale on Tuesday Nov. 15. They were struggling with website crashes, invalid codes, and chosen seats being taken before they could finish checking out. Fans expressed their anger all over social media, saying that Ticketmaster needed to work harder and smarter to make ticket sales run smoothly, especially since it was such a large event. Unfortunately, it was a less than marvelous time for fans.
After lots of complications with Ticketmaster’s website glitching out, the website stopped. Ticketmaster claimed there was an “outrageously high demand for the tickets,” even though Swift’s tour was anticipated. She is also the first artist to have 10 songs on a new album rank in all top 10 of Billboards Top 100. When fans got to the ticket selection process, the prices were astronomically high, ranging from anywhere between $55-$800 with different VIP packages adding on $100+. Resale prices are even crazier – some tickets are already up for prices as high as $8,000 on StubHub.
Ashlin Riggs, a third year at Michigan State University, had taken her laptop to class after getting there almost an hour early to prepare for the queue opening at 9:30 a.m. and logged in right away. After waiting in class, the line didn’t move. She then took her laptop to work and waited for three hours before getting into the ticket selection portion of the presale. Once she got there, there were only a small amount of highly priced seats available.
“I watched the last 20 seats go and just accepted defeat,” Riggs said when she about her struggles with ticket presale.
Twitter and Tiktok both overflowed with fans’ comments regarding the disappointment, anger, sadness and overall distress. Getting a presale code should equal getting a ticket. “Verified fans” bashed the company for how they handled the situation, but it was well deserved for the situation.
“What is Joe Biden’s plan to unpause the queue for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour,” tweeted a fan who turned the situation into a joking matter.
Swifties are even going to the point of filing lawsuits against Ticketmaster, saying that if you have proof at any time during the presale that it didn’t work, send it to someone who is getting their lawyers on board. Fans are saying that it had violations of antitrust laws, the Sherman Act, false advertising, and more. Ticketmaster took the lyrics from Taylor’s new album a little too seriously. From the song “Anti-Hero,” she sings “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,” and in “The Great War” she sings,“‘Cause we survived the great war.” Isn’t that really the case if not every fan was given the same opportunities to get tickets?