Taylor Swift Gets Brutally Honest on Trust Issues After Ticketmaster Disaster
Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" has broken Ticketmaster as its website has experienced "intermittent issues" due to "historically unprecedented demand" for its tickets. The site actually ran out of tickets to sell for the concert so they outright canceled the sale. Now, Taytay herself has broken her silence on the issue.
According to iHeart Radio, the country music icon posted on social media and stated that it was difficult "to trust an outside entity." She also admitted that it was excruciating for her "to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse," and added that there were "a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets." Finally, she stated that she will figure out how to improve the situation moving forward.
The singer also said that she and her team had asked Ticketmaster multiple times if the site could handle the high demand for those tickets, and they assured her that they could. Swift also stated that she is upset because around 2.4 million people who got tickets "feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."
Department of Justice Investigating Ticketmaster Parent Company
The Taylor Swift ticket presale fiasco has brought to light some of the flaws within Ticketmaster, as its parent company, Live Nation, is already under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ). According to the New York Times, the DOJ investigation is focusing on whether or not Live Nation has abused its power in the live music industry.
That power over the multibillion-dollar industry has come under even bigger scrutiny when Taylor Swift fans crashed Ticketmaster systems. The investigation itself has been happening before the botched presale, though the DOJ's case may have been further strengthened by the ordeal.
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In recent months, the DOJ's Antitrust Division has been contacting music venues and players in the ticket market and asking about Live Nation's practices, as well as what the wider dynamics of the industry were. They are looking into whether or not Live Nation is maintaining a monopoly over the live event industry.
Live Nation Entertainment was a product of a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. This was approved by the DOJ in 2010, but it soon grew into a giant in the industry that it had no other competition.
The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster Presale Fiasco Explained
Taytay's presale from Ticketmaster kicked off for "verified fans." This mechanism is often used to avoid bots from getting tickets early and getting those tickets resold at a much higher price. This is done when presale codes are given to individual fans. CNN reported that this practice began in 2017 and helped the site "handle situations of an enormous demand."
The company had been able to manage this practice quite well... until Taylor Swift's presale came along. Over 3.5 million people pre-registered to be a Swift "verified fan," and this overwhelmed the system, and this was the largest registration in the company's history. The number of people slowed down some sales while others were delayed. Ticketmaster tried to "stabilize the systems," but was forced to halt everything.
In the end, the company's inability to handle such a high demand for Taylor Swift tickets and a lack of tickets to meet further demand has already killed off the company's planned sale for the general public. The company was blamed for the fiasco by fans, as well as members of Congress who pointed out that the company controlled much of the live music industry.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
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