Ah, November 15th. A day that started like any other, but slowly took a turn for the worst. What I thought would be an easy, hour or two-long experience of purchasing tickets turned into a whole day, stress-filled ordeal.
Several weeks ago, Taylor Swift announced that she would be going on a stadium tour around the United States. The tickets would launch for sale through Ticketmaster and use the Verified Fan program. While this sounds good in theory, everything quickly failed.
First, I must confess that I am one of the privileged and lucky ones. Unlike many, after seven hours of stress and mayhem, I got tickets. They are in the nosebleeds and were incredibly overpriced, but they are tickets nonetheless. Here’s a recap of the complications that went down on November 15:
- The Boosts: How did they work? Nobody will ever know. When I received an email stating that my place in line was “boosted,” I was so excited. However, it’s obvious by the aftermath of ticket-purchasing that this meant nothing. While I was able to get tickets, many “boosted” verified fans were not even able to make it out of the queue, let alone snag tickets. If buying tickets is going to be incentivized, at least make it worth it.
- Codes: What was even the point? I have never bought concert tickets before. However, even I know that entering the presale code after waiting in the queue is counterproductive. It’s painfully obvious that the “bots” Ticketmaster is so determined to prevent obtaining tickets got through the system easier than they anticipated. Not only were tickets becoming limited, but they were resold for thousands of dollars.
- Dynamic Pricing: What happened to $49-$499? When I finally exited the queue and started trying to purchase tickets, I realized that the pricing that was originally reported had not remained true. While disappointing, it’s not necessarily surprising, with many performers adopting “dynamic pricing,” which is the changing of prices based on the amount of people on the site. With millions of people showing up for the pre-sale, it’s no surprise the tickets were hundreds of dollars more than originally anticipated.