Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets just went on sale this morning, and those trying to buy them complained to Ticketmaster about long lines. Then, they added a few more issues, like problems with the website and outright crashes.
Some have drawn comparisons to The Hunger Games. Potential ticket purchasers complained of waiting for long hours with little to show for it. This was due to overwhelming demand. The demand came from the same fans who had propelled 10 singles from Swift’s most recent album, Midnights, to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, a first-time feat in the chart’s history. Ticketmaster described the problem as “intermittent issues with the site.”
Others claimed they couldn’t finish their transactions because they were being automatically logged out.
According to Rolling Stone, “As of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the site was experiencing major issues, with fans either completely logged out or in a queue 2,000-plus people strong that appeared frozen.”
the way I can’t even get into ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/61zm0GAL5k
— kai 🫶 50 (@tactIesstherese) November 15, 2022
One well-known Millennial echoed calls for legal action against the service that has been made for years.
Today’s morning tweet from House Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez stated, “Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its [sic] merger with Live Nation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in. Break them up.”
A supporter responded to the congresswoman’s call with a picture of Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard on Capitol Hill in 1995, pointing out that” @PearlJam were aware of these monopolistic practices back in 1995. They even testified before congress regarding the issue.” They even provided testimony on the subject before Congress.
The group at the time also attempted to establish a different ticket-purchasing channel and filed a complaint against the primary ticket seller with the US Justice Department.
@PearlJam were aware of these monopolistic practices back in 1995. They even testified before congress regarding the issue. pic.twitter.com/N025hQJidg
— Patrick (@70sspacepunk) November 15, 2022
Ticketmaster updated people with numerous tweets
This morning, as the troubles with the website grew worse, Ticketmaster published a number of tweets. One of them instructed followers to start purchasing through the presale URLs texted to them rather than the Ticketmaster website, which was dealing with “unprecedented demand.”
The ticketing company delayed pre-sales for several West Coast cities from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. In addition, pre-sale tickets for Capitol One cardholders were postponed till tomorrow.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
Fans have expressed dissatisfaction with the site’s downtime over the past 12 months. For example, fans of Adele, who attempted to purchase tickets for her tour through a presale in December, ran into problems. At the time, the ticket service firm claimed that an outage with Amazon Web Services was to blame.
The 52-date U.S. leg of Swift’s The Eras Tour will kick off on March 18 in Arizona and end on August 5 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Due to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage impacting companies globally, the Adele Verified Fan Presale window originally scheduled for 10AM PT will now begin at 2PM PT and last until 2:55PM PT
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) December 7, 2021