After a presale marked by interminable waits and multiple breakdowns, the general sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s US tour has been canceled, specialty site Ticketmaster announced Thursday.
“Due to particularly high demand (…) and insufficient remaining tickets to meet this demand, the sale scheduled for Friday has been cancelled,” the company tweeted.
“I don’t know what to do now,” lamented AFP’s Cody Rhodes, whose cousin received a code to buy a presale this week but waited five hours and never received it. Couldn’t get one.
“They + canceled + and didn’t postpone + so I wonder if they still have tickets to sell,” wondered the 23-year-old fan, who wasn’t sure he’d be able to afford one. Buying a place on resale can cost thousands of dollars, but try it anyway.
Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to requests from AFP.
The company said it sold 2 million tickets for the pop star during a presale on Tuesday, a single-day record for an artist.
Despite implementing safeguards such as verifying fan accounts and issuing codes to pre-purchase seats, the ticketing site complained in a press release.
Ticketmaster’s system received 3.5 billion requests, which caused system errors, the company said.
The cacophony has reignited the debate over the panic in the ticketing industry that has frustrated music fans for years, particularly due to hidden fees and price gouging.
Many US elected officials have criticized the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and entertainment company Live Nation, described by Democrat David Ciccline as a “regulatory monopoly”.
Antitrust and consumer protection groups have recently called for an investigation into the group, which they say allows them to “increase prices, impose unnecessary and costly fees and exploit artists, independent venues and fans”.
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