Taylor Swift ticket debacle breaks the internet [Updated]

Well, everyone remembers where we were when the Ticketmaster queue was paused.

A complicated maze of codes, tiered access, fares, and updates that might be difficult to parse left fans scrambling for tickets ahead of a recently announced Taylor Swift concert tour. The pop megastar will play three shows at the Nissan Stadium on May 5, 6 and 7. According to a map shared with the Scene analyzing geotagged tweets, from Swifties across states, Tennesseans expressed the most negative feelings towards Ticketmaster for the tail end of this week’s train wreck. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also expressed concern about the debacle and potential violation of consumer protections by Ticketmaster.

We strive to make purchasing tickets as easy as possible for fans, but that hasn’t been the case for many people who have tried to purchase Eras Tour tickets, reads a statement from Ticketmaster.

Fans were advised to sign up for the Verified Fan program before the tour to have a better chance of getting a presale code. On Monday night, 1.5 million people were invited to queue for the pre-sale, which opened at 10am on Tuesday. Another 2 million people were put on a pre-sale waiting list. Shortly after the waitlist opened, the Ticketmasters portal crashed, leaving hopeful shoppers waiting for seven or eight hours.

It’s a cultural reset, says Nashville Swiftie Carley Carder. It was so awful standing in line all day. Parasocial relationships are weird, but I’m mad at her. [Taylor] he said, i want money at the expense of everyone around me.

Carder bought merch specifically because she suspected it would give her a better chance of getting a pre-sale code, and received an email from the official Taylor Nation fan organization confirming that she had gotten a push. You have also signed up for a Capital One credit card so you can participate in one more pre-sale.

By 2:50, I could see the queue moving at a traceable speed, Carder says. I could see the queue moving and the numbers changing. People were texting me saying they had tickets. I got the tickets at 3.35pm. There was almost nothing left. Tickets popped in and out. He would say that another fan came to them and new ones would arise, then disappear. We didn’t know what was going on.

Carder reports that he paid $289 per ticket for two obstructed-view seats in Row E on the 100th level of the stadium. With Ticketmaster’s fees, the total came to nearly $700.

But I’m glad I got them, she says. At least I have a ticket. Many people don’t. It might sound crazy, but it’s so good of a show. I could not imagine not going.

Carder says a friend paid $599 for a ticket that is somehow marked as both obstructed view and VIP. Some tickets on the secondary market are priced in excess of $10,000.

Since the tour was announced, Swift has added dates to the rush twice, with an extra show in Nashville each time: first eight more shows came, and then 17 more dates. The Eras Tour is Swift’s first long run since her Reputation Stadium Tour concluded in 2018. In that four-year span, Swift has released four new studio LPs. Lover, Folklore, Always AND Midnight and re-recordings of career milestones titled Fearless (Taylor’s version) AND Red (Taylor version) following his breakup with Big Machine Label Group.

Update, Nov 18, 2:30pm: Taylor Swift responded to the kerfuffle with a note in an Instagram story, screencapped below. “It’s really amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets,” she writes, “but it really pisses me off that so many of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

The New York Times it also reports that the U.S. Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation, which predates Swift’s ticket-selling incident. Two unnamed sources note that the investigation focuses on whether or not Live Nation abused its power.