On November 1, 2022, chaos erupted as Taylor Swift announced her upcoming Eras tour on Good Morning America and her social media. The internet exploded with this news due to the recent release of her album ‘Midnights’ coupled with this being her first tour in nearly five years . By November 11, 2022, a total of 52 tour dates were released in the US, some being multiple nights in the same city. As these dates were revealed, anticipation and excitement flooded social media, filling virtually every platform almost instantly.                                                                                   

As this anticipation built, an announcement was made on the 14th of November that alerted “verified fans” that they would have access to presale tickets. The problem with this was that too many people were given verification status. Ticketmaster’s numbers show that  3.5 million had registered for TaylorSwiftTix presale, and out of that, only 1.5 million people were sent the codes. This led to roughly 2 million “verified fans” that had to be placed on a waitlist. So what happened when people tried to get the actual tickets? 

If fans thought the verification process itself was stressful, they were about to be blindsided. On the 15th, the presale was set to start at 10:00 am. 1.5 million people were waiting in the queue, but what happened was far worse than anticipated. To be blunt, Ticketmaster wasn’t able to handle the rapid demand for tickets in such a short period of time. Two million tickets were sold solely through this platform, which was the most tickets ever sold in a single day by an artist, but this process was not without troubles. After fans entered their presale codes, they moved on to select their seats, at this point the site was bumping those with presale codes off the page. This chaos resulted in fans randomly clicking on seats they may have not wanted, or an inability to log back in, and ultimately losing their chance to see Taylor Swift in concert. 

So, what was done about Ticketmaster’s clear inability to provide a multitude of fans with the resources to obtain tickets in an organized way? Ticketmaster released a statement the following day that alerted the public that the general sale would be canceled. Ticketmaster’s reasoning for this sudden change was due to the “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems,” which resulted in an investigation being opened by the Justice Department on the effects that Ticketmaster and similar corporations have on the entertainment industry. What created a new level of outrage was the cancellation of general sales for the public. 

Following the events that took place in the first couple weeks of November, many things happened. To start out, Taylor Swift released an apology to her fans that stated she was upset this had happened, especially when she had been reassured by Ticketmaster that everything was under control. In this message posted to her Instagram story, she also addressed Ticketmaster in a direct and firm manner, directly combating the idea that she condoned this mess to take place.  Even though Taylor Swift addressed her fans and an investigation has been started, is this enough to fix the damage done? Will this attempt to fix the relationship with her fans be enough to make up for the disappointment and utter chaos that erupted in attempting to get these tickets and easily left more than 2 million people – the fans that were signed up but left off the presale – without the ability or chance to purchase tickets to see Taylor Swift.