With her new release of her newest album Midnights, Taylor Swift wants her fans to “meet [her] at midnight,” and the announcement of The Eras Tour was a promising event for fans to do so. However, that may not be possible for some because of Ticketmaster’s recent cancellation of the general public on-sale. 

Ticketmaster is a billion-dollar company where fans can buy and sell tickets. With the historic demand for Swift’s tour, there were two opportunities to purchase tickets before the general public on-sale: the verified fan presale and the Capital One presale.

Ticketmaster was in charge of sending codes to fans who had signed up to be “Verified Fans.” With these codes, fans could access tickets three days before the general public. With the Capital One presale, fans with Capital One credit cards had another chance to purchase tickets in advance. 

The problem occurred when, in order to meet the demand, Ticketmaster sent codes to too many fans and the website was overwhelmed with buyers and potential resellers or bots. On the website, fans entered the waiting room and the queue, then get their chance to buy tickets using their code. 

A criticism of this was that those who did not receive codes could still wait in line to purchase tickets; however, they could not actually buy them without the code. Because of this, the number of people in the waiting room or queue was far too much for the website to handle, and it crashed, leaving countless fans confused and disappointed. 

Sandburg student Eesha Pathak had family members at home experiencing these problems first-hand when trying to buy tickets during both presale events. 

Pathak says, “My aunt kept receiving error messages once she had selected tickets, and once it even kicked her out of the selection and back into the queue.” 

Because of these complications and difficult attempts at purchasing tickets, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, is even facing an investigation by the Department of Justice for the mishandling of ticket sales and abusing their dominance in the ticket industry.  

Some fans who have waited years to see Swift perform never got the chance to purchase tickets, and overall, buyers wish the situation was handled differently. 

Sandburg student Maddie Gallagher feels disappointed in how Ticketmaster handled the situation, saying, “The canceled general sale is extremely unfortunate for fans who were unable to take part in the presale, as they had an unfair chance to buy tickets.”

Gallagher, a Swift fan herself, wants the singer to take action somehow. She says, “I think Taylor should consider adding more shows to allow for more fair sales for fans.”

Swift addressed the situation by posting to her 234 million followers on Instagram, saying she was assured by Ticketmaster on multiple occasions that they could handle the demand. The singer noted she is very protective of her fans and said, “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets, and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.” 

While her apology won’t be able to put tickets in the hands of those who couldn’t receive them, Swift hopes to provide more opportunities for those fans in the future. She goes on to say, “Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”

Concerts are a great way to experience live music again especially when some artists like Swift have not toured in years. This cancellation was a shocking disappointment to all hoping to buy tickets; however, with Swift’s recent statement, all fans can do is hope they have the chance to see the singer at a later date.