Taylor Swift recently announced her upcoming tour: The Eras Tour. This tour will embark in major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, and Houston. It will last six months, starting in March and ending in August. However, the announcement of her tour wasn’t the only thing Swifties were talking about.  

Fans were met with a troublesome time trying to gain tickets. Ticketmaster, the main provider of selling concert tickets, was aware of the high demand for the superstar’s tickets. To make things run smooth and steady for fans, Ticketmaster had a presale for verified fans on Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. EST, where buyers would receive a code and link to purchase tickets.  

Once the clock struck ten, fans flocked to Ticketmaster’s website to queue and virtually wait in line. However, Ticketmaster’s website drew in about 14 million users on their site at once, causing the website to face many malfunctions. The crash resulted in Ticketmaster having to pause the queue, resulting in many people having to wait hours online.  

According to Ticketmaster, out of the 14 million people it accumulated, only 2.4 million presale tickets were sold. Upon Ticketmaster’s failure to uphold this demand, many people rushed to share their frustrations on social media.  

This circumstance is a much deeper problem than most people seem to realize. Ticketmaster has been under fire before due to similarly-unfortunate fan experiences. For example, online bots have been known to buy the majority of tour tickets, only to resell them at a much more higher price. 

It is important to note that back in 2010, Live Nation, a concert promotion company, and Ticketmaster merged. According to Vox website, due to the merge, Ticketmaster gained a virtual monopoly over ticket-buying consumers and the venues in which they play. 

Sellers and buyers alike seek to undo this merge because of how detrimental it has been for the ticket-buying experience. Artists have also faced more restrictions in selecting their arenas and stadiums to play.  

The New York Times stated that as a result of a disastrous presale event, Live Nation was now being investigated by the Justice Department to determine whether the company has abused its power.  

Devout fans, lovers of music and entertainment and artists deserve to experience fun and unforgettable memories at concerts. But it can be difficult to picture that possibility when so many people must  face these hurdles and problems to buy their tickets.