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Taylor Swift stans (aka “Swifties”) and government officials are putting Ticketmaster on blast, as they’re accusing the platform of failing to meet demands sufficiently.
It all began when Taylor announced that she’ll soon embark on a tour in which she’ll take attendees on “a journey through the musical eras of [her] career.”
Once the presale tickets went live on Tuesday, all-out chaos ensued as people scrambled to secure their spot to see the “All Too Well” artist perform live.
Ticketmaster ultimately crashed due to the influx of Swifties, which the platform described as “historically unprecedented demand” in a tweet.
Understandably, Twitter was soon full of disgruntled Swifties expressing how utterly impossible it was to actually secure the Taylor Swift tickets.
With so much discussion on the Ticketmaster situation, it’s no surprise that it caught the attention of some noteworthy political figures.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took to Twitter on Tuesday to call out Ticketmaster for being a “monopoly” that should be dismantled.
Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) shared similar thoughts on the subject.
In fact, Swifties called so much attention to the Ticketmaster situation that the Attorney General of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti (R), got involved and announced that he’d begin an investigation, WSMV reports.
He further elaborated on his intentions during a press conference on Wednesday.
“If it’s a consumer protection violation and we can find exactly where the problems are, we can get a court order that makes the company do better. That makes sure the problems that happened yesterday don’t happen again,” Skrmetti declared. “I would hope the company is doing everything it can to make sure the customers, from today forward, have a much smoother and fairer experience.”
After being firmly placed in the hot seat, Ticketmaster representatives released addressed the controversy in a statement on Thursday and promised to do better in the future.
“We’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience. Especially for high demand on sales, which continue to test new limits,” the statement reads. “While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Greg Maffi—the CEO of Liberty Media, which is affiliated with Ticketmaster, according to CNBC—also spoke on the situation. Specifically, he seemingly attempted to place the blame on factors outside of Ticketmaster itself.
“Reality, it’s a function of the massive demand that Taylor Swift has. The site was supposed to be opened up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift Fans. We had 14 million people hit the site—including bots, another story, which are not supposed to be there,” Maffi shared.
However, for those who were unable to secure their presale tickets for The Eras Tour, there’s still hope, as tickets will be sold to the general public starting on Friday.
What are your thoughts on the Ticketmaster situation?
