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Friday, November 25, 2022
Taylor Swift ticket sale problems spark widespread criticism of Ticketmaster
CANVAS Arts: Fans of Taylor Swift hoping to score tickets to her upcoming tour have met a confusing and chaotic system, prompting outrage from fans and lawmakers alike.
As someone who vaguely follows Taylor Swift and has many friends who are huge Swifteys I have heard about the craziness of pre-sales since November 15th. The chaos and disappointment of Ticketmastere’s actions have also been on my For You Page since pre-sales went up. Ticketmaster’s actions over the years have escalated to such a point where even to me, someone who has not gone to a concert in years, the monopoly over the live event industry is incredibly obvious. I have heard about fans of Olivia Rodrigo and Harry styles being screwed over by Ticketmaster time and time again and the fact that it has been going on for years and the government has not done anything about this monopoly is ridiculous. I understand the idea of supply and demand but it seems to me ticketmaster does not repeatedly choosing to screw over fans and artists time and time again.
It's hard to believe that after so long, there has still been little action taken against ticketmaster and they are continuously allowed to get away with doing things like this. There has been a great deal of debate surrounding ticketmaster that has only increased in recent years and I am honestly not at all surprised that the ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has turned into this disaster. Ticketmaster has a long history of charging overpriced fees, not allowing people to easily get tickets, and not preventing resellers from buying up tickets in large quantities for high prices. Now that they have angered the Swifties, I hope that ticketmaster may finally meet its downfall. As more and more people speak out against this monopoly, there is more of a chance that action will finally be taken against them and they may finally be forced to break up their monopoly.
I have been to a decent amount of concerts and hate getting my tickets from ticketmaster because the tickets are usually as expensive as their fees. I am a huge Swiftie and getting tickets to her concert has not been easy in the past. Just trying to get a code for this concert was so difficult. Getting concert tickets shouldn't be this big ordeal that ticketmaster and live nation make it out to be. Getting tickets to U2 and 5 Seconds of Summer took so long and the fees were insane and almost the same price as the ticket. I feel like this is a problem and should be handled like how the article mentioned. When taylor swift went on sale it literally broke the site and this isn't the first time there has been an issue with this. You know it is a problem when the President of the United States addresses it as an issue. It is irritating that nothing has been done.
I have said it plenty of times here, but I hate the monopoly that Stubhub/Ticketmaster have on selling tickets in the entertainment industry. They are really just extremely legitimized scalpers. They have next to no stake in productions actually operating smoothly and are anti-consumer in so many ways. It wasn't long ago that when the pandemic began these websites changed their return policy and refused to give refunds on tickets, even if purchasers bought insurance in case the shows they purchased tickets for were cancelled. In addition, they charge far above ticket price for events simply because there is no infrastructure in place to prevent these companies from simply buying everything in order to hold complete say in how much is charged. Ticket prices were already skyrocketing before the pandemic, with very little of that extra revenue actually going to the artists and personnel making the show happen. And it has only gotten worse in recent years. They need to be dethroned.
So, by now we all know how much of a hot mess the Eras Tour presale was. As much as I love listening to her music, it never even crossed my mind to attempt to get a ticket to one of her shows. As much as I think it might be fun, the hassle and money to get a ticket is way too much. The TicketMaster/Live Nation merger created such a monopoly on this industry, with massive fees and just general bad practice when it comes to their business. However, I think this article makes a really good point: artists like Taylor Swift have much more power than the smaller artists potentially dealing with issues with this company. That is not to say that Taylor is all powerful here and could have prevented this: Live Nation also covers venue management and concert promotion etc. It is really hard to get away from them when you are en route to selling out arenas across the country. But, this needs to change ASAP. I hope smaller artists are not hurt too badly by all of this. (and agreed to TicketMaster needing to be being dethroned^)
I am surprised that this is only just now being brought up and discussed openly at such a large scale. This monopoly, discussed on social media and in a letter by these representatives, seems to have been evident for some time. In most cases, the only way to get tickets for a show is to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster. Also, their website servers are often unable to handle the amount of traffic the website receives when major and popular artist's tickets are released. Personally, I believe these steps should have been taken at least seven years ago, or possibly even earlier. But it makes sense that a big shot like Taylor Swift would have to go through a difficult ticket release before anyone even tried to solve this insane problem. And like they say in this segment, This does not just affect the bigger artists that everyone knows, but especially the smaller artists that do not have as much influence as the larger artists do.
When I first heard about the steep prices of these tickets, and the monopoly created by "presale" ticketing (what a scummy marketing ploy, honestly), I immediately thought about how Kurt Cobain was scandalized to learn that some bands in the 90s were selling concert tickets for as much as $27. I think that would be about $60 today -- which is a far cry from the $750 it costs to see Taylor Swift in concert. I also read something about Adele's Vegas residency averaging about $6000 a seat. That is insane. I understand that these are "mega superstars" and seeing them live is going to cost inherently more than others, but these prices, coupled with the outrageous fees of online ticketing systems, are viciously classist. The majority of fans cannot afford see these people in concerts, ever. The majority of fans cannot even afford $60 tickets for niche indie bands. This just deprives a whole population of people from experiencing live art. I don't know. I remember, before the pandemic, To Kill a Mockingbird performed in Madison Square Garden for local schools, for free. And I remember reading that was the first time many of those kids had seen a play, let alone a Broadway play. It's just sad that art is so inaccessible for the people who need it most.
Anyway. I'm glad I'm not a young Taylor Swift fan because I would not want to feel that disappointment.
7 comments:
As someone who vaguely follows Taylor Swift and has many friends who are huge Swifteys I have heard about the craziness of pre-sales since November 15th. The chaos and disappointment of Ticketmastere’s actions have also been on my For You Page since pre-sales went up. Ticketmaster’s actions over the years have escalated to such a point where even to me, someone who has not gone to a concert in years, the monopoly over the live event industry is incredibly obvious. I have heard about fans of Olivia Rodrigo and Harry styles being screwed over by Ticketmaster time and time again and the fact that it has been going on for years and the government has not done anything about this monopoly is ridiculous. I understand the idea of supply and demand but it seems to me ticketmaster does not repeatedly choosing to screw over fans and artists time and time again.
Theo
It's hard to believe that after so long, there has still been little action taken against ticketmaster and they are continuously allowed to get away with doing things like this. There has been a great deal of debate surrounding ticketmaster that has only increased in recent years and I am honestly not at all surprised that the ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has turned into this disaster. Ticketmaster has a long history of charging overpriced fees, not allowing people to easily get tickets, and not preventing resellers from buying up tickets in large quantities for high prices. Now that they have angered the Swifties, I hope that ticketmaster may finally meet its downfall. As more and more people speak out against this monopoly, there is more of a chance that action will finally be taken against them and they may finally be forced to break up their monopoly.
I have been to a decent amount of concerts and hate getting my tickets from ticketmaster because the tickets are usually as expensive as their fees. I am a huge Swiftie and getting tickets to her concert has not been easy in the past. Just trying to get a code for this concert was so difficult. Getting concert tickets shouldn't be this big ordeal that ticketmaster and live nation make it out to be. Getting tickets to U2 and 5 Seconds of Summer took so long and the fees were insane and almost the same price as the ticket. I feel like this is a problem and should be handled like how the article mentioned. When taylor swift went on sale it literally broke the site and this isn't the first time there has been an issue with this. You know it is a problem when the President of the United States addresses it as an issue. It is irritating that nothing has been done.
I have said it plenty of times here, but I hate the monopoly that Stubhub/Ticketmaster have on selling tickets in the entertainment industry. They are really just extremely legitimized scalpers. They have next to no stake in productions actually operating smoothly and are anti-consumer in so many ways. It wasn't long ago that when the pandemic began these websites changed their return policy and refused to give refunds on tickets, even if purchasers bought insurance in case the shows they purchased tickets for were cancelled. In addition, they charge far above ticket price for events simply because there is no infrastructure in place to prevent these companies from simply buying everything in order to hold complete say in how much is charged. Ticket prices were already skyrocketing before the pandemic, with very little of that extra revenue actually going to the artists and personnel making the show happen. And it has only gotten worse in recent years. They need to be dethroned.
So, by now we all know how much of a hot mess the Eras Tour presale was. As much as I love listening to her music, it never even crossed my mind to attempt to get a ticket to one of her shows. As much as I think it might be fun, the hassle and money to get a ticket is way too much. The TicketMaster/Live Nation merger created such a monopoly on this industry, with massive fees and just general bad practice when it comes to their business. However, I think this article makes a really good point: artists like Taylor Swift have much more power than the smaller artists potentially dealing with issues with this company. That is not to say that Taylor is all powerful here and could have prevented this: Live Nation also covers venue management and concert promotion etc. It is really hard to get away from them when you are en route to selling out arenas across the country. But, this needs to change ASAP. I hope smaller artists are not hurt too badly by all of this. (and agreed to TicketMaster needing to be being dethroned^)
I am surprised that this is only just now being brought up and discussed openly at such a large scale. This monopoly, discussed on social media and in a letter by these representatives, seems to have been evident for some time. In most cases, the only way to get tickets for a show is to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster. Also, their website servers are often unable to handle the amount of traffic the website receives when major and popular artist's tickets are released. Personally, I believe these steps should have been taken at least seven years ago, or possibly even earlier. But it makes sense that a big shot like Taylor Swift would have to go through a difficult ticket release before anyone even tried to solve this insane problem. And like they say in this segment, This does not just affect the bigger artists that everyone knows, but especially the smaller artists that do not have as much influence as the larger artists do.
When I first heard about the steep prices of these tickets, and the monopoly created by "presale" ticketing (what a scummy marketing ploy, honestly), I immediately thought about how Kurt Cobain was scandalized to learn that some bands in the 90s were selling concert tickets for as much as $27. I think that would be about $60 today -- which is a far cry from the $750 it costs to see Taylor Swift in concert. I also read something about Adele's Vegas residency averaging about $6000 a seat. That is insane. I understand that these are "mega superstars" and seeing them live is going to cost inherently more than others, but these prices, coupled with the outrageous fees of online ticketing systems, are viciously classist. The majority of fans cannot afford see these people in concerts, ever. The majority of fans cannot even afford $60 tickets for niche indie bands. This just deprives a whole population of people from experiencing live art. I don't know. I remember, before the pandemic, To Kill a Mockingbird performed in Madison Square Garden for local schools, for free. And I remember reading that was the first time many of those kids had seen a play, let alone a Broadway play. It's just sad that art is so inaccessible for the people who need it most.
Anyway. I'm glad I'm not a young Taylor Swift fan because I would not want to feel that disappointment.
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