Things have gotten out of hand over at Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift fans are receiving the short end of the stick.
Presale tickets for Swift’s The Eras Tour officially went on sale today, and what should have been an exciting occasion turned out to be an infuriating one when Ticketmaster once again crashed this morning. The same thing happened on Nov. 1 following Swift’s announcement that she was going back on tour; fans who tried to secure presale access were met with site crashes and obscenely long queues, and eventually called on the Department of Justice to step in.
Swifties are officially at their wit’s end, and who better to turn to in such times than Miss Americana herself? The 11-time Grammy Award-winning artist is being called upon to do what she does best and reshape the ticket-selling industry by creating her own. Look, if anyone can do it, Taylor can. After all, she is the same person who left Scooter Braun and Big Machine Records to re-record her entire discography and subsequently change how artists interact with record labels forever.
There’s no doubt anything Swift came up with would be better than Ticketmaster, which has received complaints from both Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Biden himself. Not only has the site become known for crashing during ticket sales for artists of Taylor Swift’s level of superstardom, but its obscene processing fees leave many to wonder where those dollars are going if not to prevent instances such as these.
The “boost system” Twitter user @holygroundsound refers to in their tweet was a ticket-selling system Swift put in place for her Reputation Tour in 2018. All fans had to do was watch her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, share it on social media, buy merchandise, and then get assigned a specific time to buy tickets. Sure, it was a marketing tactic in and of itself, but at least it did better than Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program, which has all but imploded on itself for The Eras Tour.
Tickets to The Eras Tour officially open to the masses on Nov. 18. If the presale is any indication of what to expect going forward, it’ll be messy. Good luck, Ticketmaster. You’re going to need it. You don’t mess with Swifties and walk out unscathed.
For more information on The Eras Tour ticket prices, dates, locations, and more, you can learn more here.