Music Industry

Taylor Swift Want to Change the Way Fans Buy Tickets. This Is Gonna Piss Off a Lot of People.

Ticketmaster introduced their Verified Fan system a while back as a way of combating ticket-buying bots. Fans can register to purchase tickets to their favourite acts and after being verified as actual human beings, they are given the green light for the opportunity (NOT the guarantee, though) to purchase tickets to those shows. Ticketmaster told me that it’s managed to cut down the number of tickets going to bots to as low as 10%, which should be considered a victory for the meatbags.

Taylor Swift is taking Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan a step further. Fans who want to see Tay-Tay in the flesh will not only have to elbow aside the robots (something they can do by becoming Officially Verified) but they’ll also have to fight it out amongst each other. In order to get further up the queue, fans will have to compete by doing things like buying Taylor merch–which, of course, will put even more money into Tay-Tay’s treasury. In other words, “Want to go to the show? Then prove it by spending as much as you can!”

This video offers an intro to the concept, but if you want to get into the actual terms of the deal go here.

To my knowledge, this is the first time an artist has set their fans upon each other in this kind of cage match. But if this works, expect other artists to adopt similar tactics. Then again, there’s already a backlash.

One more thing: Why are Taylor Swift fans all portrayed as cats? And I missing something?

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38031 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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