November 1st, 2022, Taylor Swift announces that she will be going on her “Eras” tour in 2023. It has been almost five years since Taylor Swift has gone on tour. Fans are more than excited to grab tickets to see their favorite artist perform. Even music enthusiasts who wouldn’t consider themselves a Taylor Swift fan would love to go. On Tuesday, November 15th, as fans rush to secure their tickets, there seem to be some issues. An issue viewed as minor to some, turned into chaos as Swift’s loyal fans wanted answers.

Ever since Swift announced her “Eras” tour, fans were ecstatic, considering the five-year gap between her last tour due to the cancellation of her 2020 “Lover Fest” tour because of COVID-19. When fans were prepared to order their tickets on the Ticketmaster website on November 15th, issues including Verified Fan codes not working and losing tickets due to being kicked off the website when attempting to checkout, fans were rightfully outraged. With frustration being lashed out at Ticketmaster, the company responded with the reason being that there was unprecedented demand for the tickets. Swift informed her fans that Ticketmaster had assured her that they would be prepared for the overwhelming demand that Swift was expecting. Fans who purchased Verified Fan codes in order to have a better opportunity to buy tickets since they would be released to the Verified Fans first, were extremely disappointed when the fan codes were not all working. This also includes technical glitches, long waits, and site crashes. By this point, fans had brought the issue to social media where they expressed their inconvenience with Ticketmaster. With the outrage quickly gaining attention, politicians even chimed in to convey their opinions. House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter with her opinions on Ticketmaster being a monopoly that must be broken up after its merger with Live Nation Entertainment. Since then, the Justice Department has even gotten involved as they are conducting an investigation into the parent company of Ticketmaster, Live Nation Entertainment. The investigation is regarding whether the company has abused its power in the music industry, and I think it is clear that Swift fans would agree. 

As if this situation could not escalate any further, more than two dozen fans who attempted to buy tickets had expressed and began to pursue their intentions of suing Live Nation Entertainment. Luckily, on December 12th, select fans were notified that they would have another opportunity to secure tickets, although this did not satisfy many fans who are still outraged. As more information is released, Swift fans among others will be eager to see how the Justice Department addresses this issue.