“If we survived the Great War.”

Taylor Swift The Eras Tour breaks a new record, resulting in Ticketmaster being under federal investigation. 

With an unprecedented demand of 3.5 million fans pre-registering for the Eras Tour, tickets have already sold out before the general sale was able to happen. With Taylor Swift having no other choice but to use Ticketmaster, three sale dates were provided. The Verified Presale, where fans would receive a specific code they would be able to use in order to gain access to tickets, it was also seemingly known that only a small number of tickets would be for sale. The Capital One presale was scheduled next, giving Capital One cardholders access to the tickets. The final sale was to be a general sale, where the public would all have access to the tickets left over, which would have been the majority. But, things took a turn for the worse and many “Swifties” were left ticketless, including juniors Bianca Flores and Amiyah Sims. 

Due to the high demand of tickets, all tickets were sold during the presale, on top of many technical issues being reported. Sims describes the date of the verified presale as the “worst day of my life!” Sims was unable to obtain tickets after staying home from school and waiting in the queue line for over five hours. Flores had an identical experience, with the hope of having another chance during the general sale. Fans all over the country were kept in the online queue for hours, and even kicked out just moments before purchasing the tickets they had selected. This has caused an uproar within the Swiftie fandom. Many blame Taylor Swift herself, while it has been revealed that she did everything possible to prevent this from happening. 

Swift’s team has revealed that Ticketmaster had previously confirmed they would be able to handle this high demand situation, when in reality they were not. On top of this, Ticketmaster is now under investigation by the Justice Department for abusing its monopoly power over the live music industry, and some fans are even suing. The prices to obtain tickets were un-achievable, rising up thousands of dollars. Flores claims the prices are “definitely not worth it,” while Sims explains how she could not afford to buy any, going as far to even claim she would “eat a pair of jeans” if that meant she would be in attendance. 

Questions are being raised on why this is still the biggest platform for ticket selling, as Ticketmaster has proven time and time again that it is insufficient in being able to provide realistic-priced tickets to true fans. Flores completely agrees with the investigation on Ticketmaster and has hopes that Swift will move on from Ticketmaster, while Sims simply doesn’t understand why more couldn’t have been done to prevent this situation. Ticketmaster has now failed countless loyal fans; Sims says this whole ordeal has been the “biggest letdown of 2022.” Likewise, Flores continues to grieve this loss and express her feelings through these words: “I feel like Taylor failed me, Ticketmaster failed me, and the whole world failed me.”