After pop superstar Taylor Swift announced she was hitting the road for the first time since her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, the buzz was astronomical and created a historic demand for tickets. The rush to secure tickets essentially broke Ticketmaster, which was tasked with handling the distribution of tickets for Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour. The event-focused giant has been under much scrutiny due to the complete mess of a process Swifties went through to try and see their favorite artist in concert. The general sale for Swift’s tour was canceled, with Ticketmaster unable to handle the demand, sending scores of fans to mob the castle, as it were. Now, a ticket promoter for the Grammy winner is pointing the finger at the ticket-selling site.
After the general sale for the tour was canceled, Swift herself expressed disdain over how the company handled the entire process after having previously insisted it had the manpower to handle fan demand. But while some have targeted a share of the blame at Swift herself for using the heavily criticized site for the Eras Tour, her ticket promoter AEG Presents claimed there wasn't really a choice, they had to use Ticketmaster. An AEG rep explained (via CNBC):
Ticketmaster’s exclusive deals with the vast majority of venues on the Eras tour required us to ticket through their system. We didn’t have a choice.
It’s important to note the singer is embarking on a mega-stadium tour in order to promote the new Taylor Swift music and maximize the number of fans able to see the “Bejeweled” singer in concert. If these venues had exclusive deals with Ticketmaster, it could have potentially become a legal issue for AEG to opt for any other avenue to get tickets to fans. While Swift may be one of the only artists powerful enough to have the option to forgo the ticket giant as a service, doing so would have severely limited the kinds of venues she could visit on the tour, such as football stadiums.
Ticketmaster, despite issuing apologies for how Swift's pre-tour situation was handled, is still the target of anger and scrutiny. The company merged with Live Nation in 2010 which essentially gave them control over 70% of the live event industry. Congressional representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called for the company to be broken up, claiming it functions as a monopoly over its industry. Also, the Justice Department has opened up an "antitrust investigation" into Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, to determine if it is abusing its power, according to NYT. The company has also been criticized by artists and fans for exuberant ticketing fees, and for being lenient with scalpers who resell tickets for massively higher prices.
While there are clearly many disappointed fans unable to see Swift due to this Ticketmaster fiasco, the singer is always giving fans something to look forward to. She has teased potential future re-recorded albums, and is making new music at an impressive pace. If you were unable to get tickets this time around, there will definitely be more Taylor Swift opportunities in the future. “This is me trying” to find a silver lining.
For fans wanting to revisit the magic of a Taylor Swift live experience, the concert film Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour is currently available with a Netflix subscription. For more information on what else is coming to the streaming platform later this year, make sure to check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 Netflix movie release schedule.
