We are Outside and Singing All Summer 2023…If Only Ticketmaster Would Get Out of the Way

Image Source: Los Angeles Times

Everyone get your wallets and cards ready because we are anticipating some of the best tours for 2023!

These past couple of months, a lot of artists have released tour dates or been on tour. With artists like Drake, 21 Savage, Taylor Swift, Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Kali Uchis, Bryson Tiller, and a bunch more, tickets are in high demand. Not to mention the artists who haven’t gone on tour in years, like legends Janet Jackson and Beyoncé.

With the announcement of these tours, tickets have been in very high demand. Users buying multiple tickets and selling one of them for the price of what they paid to get all of them make obtaining tickets even harder. One tour that we are getting to see–whether it be live or through clips/snippets–is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The pop star is currently hosting 26 shows across the United States and is killing it, but the anticipation just to get the tickets was no easy task. Fans crashed sites, sat in queues, and had multiple devices open just trying to get a chance to see Taylor Swift. 3.5 million people registered for presale codes alone, which Ticketmaster and Taylor’s tour offer to users. This and the high demand for tickets left Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift herself being called out for resellers and price increases with unnecessary fees, making the general public think they were money hungry. Ticketmaster was also faced with their mistakes at the United States Senate hearing. 

But just months later, Beyoncé announced her Renaissance World Tour following her highly critically acclaimed album Renaissance by releasing dates on her site with a link to Ticketmaster. When it directed you there, the world tour dates were separated into three different categories (Group A, Group B, and Group C), and from there you could select between the three tiers for presale codes and ticket release dates you then had to wait to get an email from Ticketmaster determining if you were selected to buy tickets for the tier you selected. It is believed that Ticketmaster did this after the outrage and lawsuits from users trying to get tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. 

But still, the announcement alone crashed Beyoncé’s site, Twitter, and more social platforms. Ticketmaster had a lot of eyes on them, including the Senate Judiciary Committee, who tweeted at Ticketmaster saying, “We’re watching.”

Although the Renaissance presale went a bit smoother for Ticketmaster and users, we were right back to square one with the announcement and release of tickets to Drake and 21 Savage’s It Was All a Blur Tour. Ticketmaster is being faced with another lawsuit after a Ticketmaster user bought his ticket to the tour at almost $800 before Drake and 21 Savage surprisingly released more dates. With this, the user saw that they added another show in their city at the same venue and the same seat he got was going for a little over $400.

As a result of COVID, people are in high anticipation to get back outside and enjoy the same things we did before. It seems as if Ticketmaster knows that and is taking advantage of it. The question is, will they stop?