Taylor Swift ticket fiasco: Ticketmaster cancels public sale of 'The Eras Tour' due to high demand
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Ticketmaster has canceled the public sale of Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" after high demand in the pre-sales.
"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 shared on Twitter Thursday.
Tennesee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti launched an investigation into Ticketmaster on Thursday due to amount of issues raised by customers throughout the Swift pre-sales.
"Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints related to @Ticketmaster. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every available tool to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated," his office tweeted Wednesday.
14 million people attempted to buy Taylor Swift pre-sale tickets on Tuesday, Ticketmaster's largest shareholder has claimed.
Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, opened up about the ticket fiasco during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk on the Steet." Verified fans were given codes to enter the Ticketmaster pre-sale on Tuesday, but many claimed their codes did not work.
"It’s a function of Taylor Swift. The site was supposed to open up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans," Maffei said. "We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots, which are not supposed to be there."
The demand "could have filled 900 stadiums," he said.
A Live Nation shareholder claimed 14 million people attempted to purchase Taylor Swift presale tickets on Tuesday ahead of the pop star’s “The Eras Tour.” (Getty Images / Getty Images) SPOTIFY CROWNS TAYLOR SWIFT'S ‘MIDNIGHTS’ AS MOST-STREAMED ARTIST, MOST-STREAMED ALBUM Many fans sat in the Ticketmaster queue for hours waiting to get Swift tickets. The ticket selling site paused the Central Standard Time queues, delayed the West coast times and pushed the Capital One presale to Wednesday to accommodate the demand. The high demand led Ticketmaster to delay the West coast pre-sale. (Fox News Digital / Fox News) A fan, who had been sent a verified code, was told the Ticketmaster account wasn’t linked to the Verified Fan sale. (Fox News Digital / Fox News) Many fans sat in the Ticketmaster queue and were told they would need to “start over” the process. (Fox News Digital / Fox News) "If Chick Fil A was in charge of the Ticketmaster queue I would've had Taylor Swift tickets within MINUTES just saying," a Twitter user wrote. "sitting in the Ticketmaster queue while its paused really has me wishing i never heard a Taylor swift song in my life and that i didn't know who she was," another user added. "This exceeded every expectation," Maffei explained. He noted that Swift's lack of concerts since her "Reputation" tour – which ran from May until November 2018 – could have contributed to the high demand. Taylor Swift performs on stage during the “Reputation” stadium tour at Wembley Stadium on June 23, 2018, in London. (Gareth Cattermole/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS / Getty Images) Taylor Swift performs onstage during the “Reputation” stadium tour on Oct. 5, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (Matt Winkelmeyer/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS / Getty Images) Swift had been set to perform the Lover Fest Tour in 2020, but the tour was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Swift has released three new albums – "Folklore," "Evermore" and "Midnights." Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, “Midnights,” was released on Oct. 21. (The Associated Press / AP Newsroom) GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Many fans took to the internet to criticize Ticketmaster's handling of the pre-sales, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, a move which has been criticized as creating a monopoly. "Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s [sic] merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned [sic] in. Break them up," she tweeted. However, Maffei defended the Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger. "Though AOC may not like every element of our business, interestingly, AEG, our competitor, who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because, in reality, we are the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world," Maffei said. "Even our competitors want to come on our platform." Taylor Swift fans were disappointed in the experience with Ticketmaster. (Gareth Cattermole/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS / Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS Source: Read Full Article
