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By now, we’ve all heard about the catastrophe that was Ticketmaster when it came to distributing tickets for the Taylor Swift “Eras Tour”.
In November, Ticketmaster, working in tandem with Live Nation, was simply overwhelmed by the demand of tickets. Fans wanting tickets for the concerts of the world’s biggest pop star waited hours, up to twelve hours in some cases, and some didn’t come away with tickets, despite having a pre-sale code.
Meanwhile, tickets that were bought by scalpers went for sale immediately after for thousands of dollars.
Taylor had to make a statement on the entire ordeal, and she did on November 18, just a few day after the fiasco.
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. 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.
Now, one state is stepping in to make sure their citizens have a fair bite at the Taylor Swift Ticket apple.
Pennsylvania has reached a settlement with Ticketmaster to offer more Taylor Swift tickets to residents
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is quite the popular figure in his state. He is currently the Governor-elect of the state, having beat Republican Doug Mastriano by an astounding fifteen points in the November election. Considering Pennsylvania has been decided by less than two percent in the last two presidential elections, quite the impressive performance for the Suburban Philadelphian.
And, his popularity, especially amongst young people, will only go up from here. He announced on Tuesday that he had directly taken on Ticketmaster over Taylor Swift tickets.
Emails will be sent to pre-sale registered fans for the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia shows in the coming days.
We know all too well this won’t solve every complaint, but it does present those who were kicked off the site or waited hours a chance to shake it off and try again.
— AG Josh Shapiro (@PAAttorneyGen) December 13, 2022
Wow. Quite the shrewd move for Shapiro, who is rumored to have higher political aspirations. Some could call it a publicity stunt or a pure political ploy. And, there’s a lot of that in this. But, Ticketmaster notoriously stinks. And, Ticketmaster and Live Nation have more or less a monopoly on concert tickets.
Chalk one up for Swifties here.