Because of the significant problems that occurred with Ticketmaster’s management of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour the previous week, an antitrust panel in the United States Senate will hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the industry. The announcement was made on November 22 by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
The hearing will take place at a later date, and the witness will be named at a later time; Senator Klobuchar announced in a statement that a hearing is currently being conducted.
On November 18, Taylor Swift stated that her team had inquired with Ticketmaster “many times” about whether or not they were capable of handling this need, and that they had assured them that they were. She stated that the situation “makes me completely ιnsane. The mere sight of errors being made without any attempt to correct them breaks my heart.” During her performance at the American Music Awards on the evening of November 20, the female singer did not mention either the incident nor the tour.
When contacted by Variety, a representative of Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, reiterated the statement that the company issued the previous week, which read as follows: “It has become abundantly clear, as a result of the price cut for the Eras tour, that Taylor Swift is an unstoppable force that continues to set records. We made an effort to simplify the process of purchasing tickets for our fans, but it appears that this was not successful for the majority of those who attempted to do so in order to attend The Eras Tour. We wanted to share some information with you in the hopes that it will help explain what took place.
When hundreds of thousands of concertgoers tried to buy tickets through Ticketmaster’s website a week ago and were unsuccessful, the stakes for competition in the market for online ticket sales were raised dramatically.
Amy Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota, made the following statement: “The high fees, website disruptions, and abrupt cancellations experienced by customers demonstrate Ticketmaster’s dominant position in the market.” This indicates that there is no pressure placed on the company to make improvements. Because of this, we have decided to hold a hearing to discuss the consolidation of the entertainment industry as well as the ways in which ticketing harms both customers and artists. When there is no competition to encourage better services and fair prices, we are all the ones who end up paying the price.
Senator Mike Lee believes that consumers in the United States should have the opportunity to benefit from competition in all markets, ranging from grocery stores to concert venues. I am looking forward to exercising our oversight to ensure that anticompetitive mergers and practices that exclude competitors do not paralyze the entertainment industry, which is already fιghtιng a losing bаttle to recover from the lockdowns caused by the pandemic.
On November 15, when tickets went on sale, the website for the company, Ticketmaster, crashed due to the overwhelming demand from fans. At the same time, thousands of fans lined up and waited for more than two hours for the opportunity to рurchase tickets. When additional fans were added to the waiting list, they were “blinded” to the selection process.
Some of the ticket buyers tried to capitalize on the excitement of the audience by рurchasing tickets on resale websites. On StubHub, tickets for a performance that will take place in Tampa, Florida in April 2023 are being listed at prices ranging from $338 to $28,350 each.
Klobuchar expressed concern in a letter she sent to Ticketmaster last week about the lack of competition in the ticketing industry and questioned whether the company had taken the necessary steps to provide the highest possible level of service to customers. Use it or don’t.
The upcoming high-profile tour of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is called the Eras Tour. As part of this tour, Swift will be introducing her most recent album, Midnights (2022). This is Swift’s second stadium tour, the first being the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), which began on March 17, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona and ended on August 9, 2023 in Inglewood, California. This current tour will begin on August 17, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. There has not been an announcement made regarding the date of the international tour. When asked about the concept behind the tour, Taylor Swift once referred to it as “a journey through all my musical eras.”