Millions of Taylor Swift fans have flooded Ticketmaster’s website, causing regular disruptions and seeing dealers wanting up to $US28,350 ($42,000) per ticket for her US stadium tour.
Key points:
- Taylor Swift US concert tickets soar to $42,000 on resale sites
- Ticketmaster says its website faces ‘historically unprecedented demand’
- Fans crashed the Ticketmaster website on the first day of sales
Fans flocked online for a second day, looking to get seats for the Anti-Hero singer’s first tour in five years.
Presales began Tuesday and drove millions of people to the Ticketmaster website, causing disruptions and long wait times.
A new round of Swift ticket pre-sales continued the next day, with fewer complaints on social media.
Asking prices on resale sites such as StuHub offered seats for an April show in Florida ranging from $338 ($500) to $28,350 ($42,000) each.
“Unprecedented Demand”
Fans reported waiting in online queues of up to eight hours on the first day of sales to buy tickets that cost between $US49 ($73) and $US449 ($666) each.
Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment LYV.N, tweeted that there had been “historically unprecedented demand” for Swift’s The Eras Tour, her first since 2018.
Fans who flooded ticketing sites described crashes, outages and other problems, and many who were granted presale codes were unable to buy tickets.
“I’m a failure as a parent,” wrote Dave Pell, author of the popular NextDraft newsletter.
“The only time my daughter really needed me to look for her, I ended up on the outside looking in, banished to the wastelands of the Taylor Swift ticket waiting list,” he said.
Some fans said they took a day off and thought the process should have gone more smoothly.
A Ticketmaster spokesman said the number of people who registered for the advance sale was more than double the number of tickets available.
An “uncontrolled monopoly”
You can’t avoid Ticketmaster if you want to attend an event.
The US ticketing industry, which is overwhelmingly dominated by the company Ticketmaster, has for years frustrated attendees with hidden fees, high costs and limited tickets due to advance sales.
The devastation spurred commentary from several politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. David Cicilline.
“@Ticketmaster’s excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable as seen with today’s tickets @taylorswift13),” Cicilline wrote on Twitter.
He added that the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which had Justice Department approval, should not have been allowed.
“It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an out-of-control monopoly.”
Taylor Swift’s US tour is scheduled to begin in March and end in August, with international dates to be announced.
Swift released her latest album, the pop record Midnights, in October.
She is now tied with Barbra Streisand for the female artist with the most Billboard No. 1 albums.
Reuters/AFP