2023 will see Taylor Swift's first tour in 5 years. But Anti-Hero Ticketmaster has cancelled all ticket sales
Swifties have been in a real frenzy lately. So much so, that Ticketmaster has cancelled all Taylor Swift concert ticket sales to the general public following an unimaginably high demand.
The “Eras Tour” would be the multiple Grammy-winning artist’s first concert tour in over five years, accounting for the overwhelming demand for tickets, flooding the site with requests.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
What happened: The American ticket sales and distribution company (the American equivalent of BookMyShow) cancelled all planned ticket sales to the general public for Taylor Swift's American tour in 2023 as 3.5 billion ticket requests from fans, bots and scalpers overwhelmed the website with record demand. The presale ticket requests for the pop star’s 2023 tour was four times as much as its previous peak.
Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 17, 2022
As millions of fans spent hours on end, desperately trying to acquire the much-sought-after tickets, Ticketmaster’s announcement came as a punch in the gut for many, provoking severe backlash from politicians over the site’s control over sales.
Ticketmaster, the Anti-Hero: Following the company’s merger with Live Nation, an artist and event management business, Ticketmaster has received staunch criticism from the US Congress who have likened it to an “unchecked monopoly”.
.@Ticketmaster's excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today's @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem.
— Congressman David N. Cicilline (@RepCicilline) November 15, 2022
It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly.
Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 15, 2022
Break them up.
On ticket resale sites such as StubHub, the asking prices range from $21,600 in New Jersey, to $35,438 in Atlanta, to a whopping $94,950 in Las Vegas.
super sad about ticketmaster canceling taylor's general sale tomorrow, but happy and optimistic seeing that stubhub's resale is extremely reasonable! pic.twitter.com/jZUu4ApwuM
— Sean ⚔️ (@dejavulyrics) November 17, 2022
An investigation now: Having received a tonne of complaints against Ticketmaster from a horde of fuming Swifties, the Attorney General of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, is set to take matters in his own hands by investigating the ticketing company’s apparent violation of consumer protection laws.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints related to @Ticketmaster’s pre-sale of @taylorswift13 concert tickets. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every available tool to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated.
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) November 16, 2022
The beloved star recently became the first artist ever to simultaneously claim all top ten spots on the Billboard Hot 100 following the release of her latest album, Midnights, which dropped last month. Taylor Swift has promised hits from albums spanning her entire career on the Eras Tour, which is scheduled to start in March 2023 and end in August that year.
Before you go: Here's Taylor Swift's Midnights...