What happened with Ticketmaster and the Taylor Swift tour pre-sale?

Ticketmaster’s nuclear-attack-level ticket-selling infrastructure was taken down Tuesday (Nov 15) when millions of Taylor Swift fans tried to get tickets to her Eras tour.

Here’s the TM statement: “There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale.”

Yeah, no kidding. Social media is on fire with people who, despite being a Verified Fan (or someone with special credit card privileges like Capital One), were unable to buy tickets for a variety of reasons. Some reported being unexpectedly kicked out of the queue. Others reported a glitchy website experience with seat maps that were slow to load and selections that didn’t stick on first click.

Then there were the usual complaints about service fees and Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” model which adjusts ticket prices based on the demand of the moment. And with so many people trying to get a limited number of tickets, prices went up. And up. And up. We’re still feeling around to find the actual market value of a Tay-Tay ticket. We’ll find that when price evens out demand.

More from Ticketmaster: “If you are currently in a queue, please hang tight – queues are moving and we are working to get fans through as quickly as possible. West Coast onsales for Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Clara and Seattle originally scheduled for 10 a.m. PT will now be taking place at 3 p.m. PT. Queues will open 30 minutes prior.”

Here’s a detailed report from someone who tried to buy tickets.

Cue the tsunami of complaints and demands for the Ticketmaster monopoly to be broken up. Great, but no one has ever come up with a viable alternative. Yes, we can discuss things like website crashes, service fees and how tickets miraculously and suddenly end up on the secondary market, but that’s not the core of the problem.

Here’s the hard truth: Taylor Swift is one of the biggest stars in the world. She doesn’t tour that often. Millions of people want to see her. There are fewer seats than there are fans. Some are going to be lucky and get tickets while others are going to be disappointed. Such is life.