Taylor Swift on Friday released a statement on her Instagram account in the wake of a series of debacles with the ticketing process for her upcoming “Eras Tour,” in which fans experienced numerous days of issues with the Ticketmaster website during its presale period before the company canceled Friday’s public ticket sale due to massive demand. 

What You Need To Know

  • Taylor Swift on Friday released a statement on her Instagram account in the wake of a series of debacles with the ticketing process for her upcoming “Eras Tour”

  • Fans experienced numerous days of issues with the Ticketmaster website during its presale period before the company canceled Friday’s public ticket sale due to massive demand

  • The 32-year-old singer wrote: "I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could"

  • The dayslong debacle – and the ensuing social media outrage from frustrated Swift fans – has also prompted a number of lawmakers to call for an FTC investigation into the company

“Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house,” Swift’s statement began. “I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. 

“It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” she continued, going on to express her frustration with Ticketmaster and Live Nation, though she did not mention either company by name. 

“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. I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” Swift went on to say. “It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them. 

“And to those who didn't get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs,” the 32-year-old concluded. “Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”

Troubles with Ticketmaster’s presale period began Tuesday, when the company experienced numerous problems and delayed sales despite having control over how many individuals were registered as “Verified Fans” for presale tickets.  

For fans to have the opportunity to purchase tickets in the presale period, they had to register before Nov. 9 as a "Verified Fan" – a system intended to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers – in order to possibly receive a presale code that would then let them into a digital queue. Individuals could “boost” their position in the line if they had an account on the official Taylor Swift merchandise website, if they had previously purchased tickets to the canceled 2020 “Lover Fest Tour,” if they had purchased a presale version of the “Midnights” album and more. 

But numerous reports Tuesday surfaced claiming those whose spots were supposed to be “boosted” were actually sent to the end of the digital line; some said they were unable to purchase tickets at all. 

In a blog post shared Thursday, Ticketmaster said 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,” which ultimately forced the site to slow down sales in order to “stabilize the systems.” But the company also said that of the 2 million-plus tickets purchased during the presale period, every ticket “was sold to a buyer with a Verified Fan code,” adding: “Nobody (not even a bot) could join a queue without being Verified.” 

Ticketmaster also wrote, in explaining why so many tickets were sold during the presale period, that it used historical data in sending out Verified Fan codes, saying typically 40% of invited fans “actually show up and buy tickets, and most purchase an average of 3 tickets.” The company placed around 1.5 million people on the presale ticket list, with another 2 million on the waitlist. 

The company did not explain why tickets were sold out so quickly; Spectrum News has reached out for clarification. 

The dayslong debacle – and the ensuing social media outrage from frustrated Swift fans – has prompted a number of lawmakers to get involved, saying Ticketmaster is a prime example of massive companies merging with others and exerting a monopoly on the market. 

The issue, many said, dates back to Ticketmaster’s contentious 2010 merger with Live Nation to create Live Nation Entertainment. 

According to a 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office, Ticketmaster controlled over 80% of primary ticketing across the United States for concerts, sports games and other major events. The company also held the second-largest market share in secondary ticket sales, behind StubHub.

A growing chorus of Democrats – and a number of attorneys general – are either encouraging the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Ticketmaster’s practices, or looking into the company themselves. 

A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment, saying any investigation conducted by the agency would be non-public and, as a general practice, the FTC does not comment on investigations. 

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.