After almost five years, Taylor Swift will go back on tour in 2023. Being arguably the biggest pop star in the world, demand was inevitably high - so high that Ticketmaster was forced to cancel its general sale. Here's a look at why it's caused so much controversy.
When Taylor Swift announced what will be her first tour in five years, demand for tickets was always going to be high.
Following its release, Swift, 32, became the first artist to claim all top 10 slots in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the album and its lead single Anti-Hero also charted at number one in the UK.Midnights followed Folklore and Evermore, Swift's forays into indie and folk which came out just five months apart in 2020 as the world was in various states of lockdown during the pandemic.
It came after the presale two days earlier caused the site to crash, leaving many fans frustrated and unable to get tickets. "The staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests - 4x our previous peak," Ticketmaster said.What did Swift say?Swift criticised Ticketmaster, saying she and her team had been assured they could handle the expected surge in demand.
The star said that 2.4 million fans had been able to purchase tickets, which was"truly amazing... but it really p***** me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them".Image:Ticketmaster, which overwhelmingly dominates the ticketing industry, has for years left fans and artists frustrated by hidden fees, rising costs, and limited tickets availability due to presales.
"The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster's dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve... However, the demand broke records, with 3.5 million system requests, it said - four times its previous peak. This unprecedented traffic"disrupted the predictability and reliability" of the verified fan registration.Ticketmaster said that despite the problems, some 2.4 million tickets have been sold - with two million on Ticketmaster making it the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day.
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