Taylor Swift–Ticketmaster controversy
The American ticket sales platform Ticketmaster and the parent company Live Nation Entertainment received widespread public criticism and political scrutiny over blunders in selling tickets to the United States leg of the Eras Tour (2023), the sixth concert tour by the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in November 2022. Media outlets described the demand for the Eras Tour's tickets as "astronomical",[1] with 3.5 million people registering for the Ticketmaster's Verified Fan pre-sale program in the U.S.
When the sale went online on November 15, 2022, the website crashed in an hour, with users logged out or in a frozen queue; however, 2.4 million tickets were sold, breaking the record for the highest single-day ticket sales ever by an artist. Ticketmaster attributed the crash to heavy site traffic—"historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up"—but users complained about poor customer service.[2] Live Nation blamed Swift's "staggering" demand "overwhelming" them beyond capacity, and canceled the general sale due to "insufficient" inventory along with an apology.[3]
Scalpers had purchased a large number of tickets and put them on ticket resale websites for exorbitant prices. Numerous fans and consumer groups alleged that Ticketmaster was deceitful. In response, several U.S. Congress members voiced to revert the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation,[note 1] which they dubbed a monopoly lacking competitive pressure, leading to substandard service and extortionate prices. The U.S. Department of Justice initiated a federal probe. Swift's tour promoter, AEG Presents, said Ticketmaster's exclusive deals with the majority of U.S. live venues coerced AEG into working with them. In December 2022, several fans sued Ticketmaster for many violations such as intentional deception, fraud, price fixing, and antitrust.
Publications opined that the controversy highlighted one of the longstanding issues in the music industry. In 2023, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee examined the fiasco with a hearing, where bipartisan senators castigated Ticketmaster. States such as New York, Texas, Massachusetts, and California outlawed scalper bots and regulated pricing models. Following pressure from Joe Biden, the U.S. president, Ticketmaster and other ticket platforms agreed to abolish junk fees and show consumers all the fees upfront. The Federal Trade Commission decided to impose a federal ban on all deceptive, surprise fees. Ticketmaster again faced criticism in mid-2023 when the United Kingdom and French sales of the Eras Tour experienced similar issues.
Website crash[edit]
The Eras Tour recorded an incredibly high demand for tickets, ultimately exposing significant issues in operational preparedness.[31][32] On November 15, the day of the pre-sale, Ticketmaster's website crashed following "historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up", halting the presale.[2] In less than an hour of availability, the ticketing platform's servers were "unable to answer", with users experiencing turbulence—"either completely logged out or in a queue 2,000-plus people strong that appeared frozen" as per Rolling Stone. Ticketmaster immediately published a statement saying they are working to fix the issues "as the site was unprepared to accommodate the sheer force of hundreds of thousands of Swift fans",[18] and subsequently reported that "hundreds of thousands of tickets" had already been sold and postponed the remainder of the presale, including the Capital One presale to November 16.[33] The public on-sale was later canceled due to "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand".[34] The Eras Tour sold over two million tickets on its first day of presale alone, breaking the all-time record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day.[3]
During and immediately after the website crash, Ticketmaster was widely criticized by fans and customers on social media for its ticketing model that obstructed purchasing.[35] According to The New York Times, the ticket sale failure "broke the internet".[4] "Ticketmaster" trended number one worldwide on various social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok.[36] CNN Business stated that the "astronomical" demand indicated Swift's popularity.[1] However, Fortune and Bloomberg News attributed the criticism to Ticketmaster's "oft-confusing multistep buying process plagued with additional fees", as well as "long waits, technical problems, and poor customer service".[14][37]
Further controversy[edit]
Following the controversy, Ticketmaster's technical failures in various other concert tours have received media attention and fan criticism, often compared to the U.S. Eras Tour fiasco.[53] In December 2022, Ticketmaster once again faced controversy after an "unprecedented" number of people were sold fake tickets to the Mexico City dates of the World's Hottest Tour, the 2022 concert tour by Puerto Rican rapper-singer Bad Bunny. The platform said the fake tickets "caused temporary intermittence in the access control system, which unfortunately impeded the identification of legitimate tickets for some moments." Ricardo Sheffield, the head of Mexico's consumer protection agency, stated in a Radio Fórmula interview that Ticketmaster would be forced to pay a fine of up to 10 percent of its 2021 earnings in addition to "compensation of no less than 20% of the price paid."[118][119] On December 26, 2022, American country singer Zach Bryan criticized Ticketmaster for the handling of his Burn Burn Burn Tour (2023) and listed out non-transferrable tickets to stop scalpers.[58] He went on to release a live album, entitled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.[120][121]
In February 2023, American singer Beyoncé announced her ninth concert tour, the Renaissance World Tour, in which she also partnered with Ticketmaster. The news created concerns on social media over Ticketmaster's reliability, with fans fearing a fiasco similar to Swift's.[122] However, Ticketmaster released a statement claiming the demand for the Renaissance World Tour is "expected to be high" and pledged to implement a "multistep verification process" to ensure tickets are being sold to the concertgoers rather than scalpers.[123] The company would continue to sell tickets via its Verified Fan program for the North American leg of the tour, but replace the at-large on-sale (as with Swift's case) with a staggered sale, as well as not initially scheduling a public on-sale.[124]
In March 2023, fans of Canadian music artist Drake also filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster in the Superior Court of Quebec, alleging intentional deception and fraud. Plaintiffs claimed that the on-sale for the It's All a Blur Tour, a co-headlining concert tour by Drake and 21 Savage, "intentionally misleads consumers for [Ticketmaster's] own financial gain" by concealing information about additional show dates to drive demand and ticket prices.[125][126] The suit seeks $300 in punitive damages per customer and compensatory damages covering the difference between the "Official Platinum" ticket prices and the regular cost for the seats.[127]
For the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool in May 2023, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the host broadcaster BBC partnered with Ticketmaster.[128] Prior to the ticket booking platform going live, many users complained that the Ticketmaster website had crashed with a 500 error.[129] Tickets for the contest's final sold out in 36 minutes, with the remaining available shows selling out around an hour later.[130] Following this, tickets were available on third-party resale platforms such as Viagogo, with a general admission standing ticket for the final, originally priced at £380, being sold for up to £11,800.[131][132][133]
In June 2023, the Eras Tour's Paris and Lyon dates registered the highest demand ever for a presale in France. Angelo Gopee, head of Live Nation France, stated, "the demand is such that many have found themselves in a virtual queue just to subscribe to the mailing list which, potentially, will open access to the ticket office. From memory, we had never seen that in France".[134] Ticketmaster halted the French presales on July 11, 2023, following login glitches.[135][136] In July 2023, the United Kingdom ticket sale of the Eras Tour was handled by Ticketmaster and AXS.[137] Forbes reported widespread scalping of the tour's UK tickets, with immediate re-listing on sites like StubHub and Viagogo for extortionate prices, in addition to website crashes.[138][139] Kevin Brennan, a Member of Parliament from Cardiff, demanded a debate in the UK House of Commons on ticket scalpers and the government's plan to tackle them.[140]