GREENSBORO, N.C. — NEW: As a result of the extremely high demand for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, Ticketmaster has canceled Friday's general public sale, citing an "insufficient remaining ticket inventory."
The announcement comes days after Ticketmaster sold over 2 million tickets to Swift's 52-date stadium tour, a record for most ticket sales for one artist in a day.
The pain was heaven for Taylor Swift fans who snagged tickets to her Eras Tour during the Tuesday presale, but other fans are calling Ticketmaster the problem.
Fans reported long wait times and website crashes, and some were not even able to purchase tickets, during the first presale opportunity.
Ticketmaster responded to fans with a statement on Twitter, saying in part that "there has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets," telling fans "thank you for your patience as (Ticketmaster continues) managing this huge demand."
When the Capital One customer presale started on Wednesday, fans were met with shorter waits but little to no seat availability.
The last time Swift was on tour was in 2018, to promote her sixth album, "Reputation." Since then, she's released four more albums, including two surprise albums during the COVID-19 pandemic, "Folklore" and "Evermore," and her most recent work "Midnights."
Swift announced 52 tour dates in 20 different cities from March 17 through August 9. None of those shows are in North Carolina.
The Eras Tour is grabbing a lot of attention, even from congressional leaders. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14) took to Twitter, calling Ticketmaster a monopoly.
What is a monopoly?
"A monopoly is essentially when you have a market where there's only one seller of a good or a service," said Kenneth Ford, an assistant professor of finance at Wake Forest University. "So in this case, it seems as if Ticketmaster is the only entity or business providing access to tickets directly to consumers."
In 2010, Ticketmaster merged with concert promoter Live Nation. "When Ticketmaster joins with Live Nation (...) and that concert promoter promotes every major concert, and they only use Ticketmaster to sell tickets, then they effectively act as a monopoly in this case," said Ford.
Morgan Harper is the director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project. It is one of the organizations leading a campaign called "Break Up Ticketmaster." The coalition is trying to raise awareness about the monopolistic practices of Ticketmaster and get the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the 2010 merger.
"The Taylor Swift tour and the whole ticketing situation with that is just one example of, there's a lot of unpredictability for the consumer on how much a ticket is going to cost," said Harper. "There are a lot of fees. In some cases, Ticketmaster is charging fees that are 78% of the face value of the ticket, and you have no idea what to expect."
If fans are negatively impacted by Ticketmaster's practices, why do artists sell tickets through the company? Harper said they may not have much of a choice.
"There are very few artists now who can earn revenue, given that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have vertically integrated," said Harper. "So they control both artists' management agencies, live event venues themselves, in addition to the ticketing market, and it's just really tough to compete."
President Joe Biden announced an initiative to reduce or eliminate hidden fees, charges, and add-ons from things like banking services, cable and internet bills, and airline and concert tickets, but Harper says they're calling on the government to do more.
"The high fees are just a reflection of larger market issues. Ticketmaster-Live Nation is a monopoly. That allows them to both impose these fees to manipulate the ticketing market to make it so that artists can't earn money, and so you can't just make sure that there's disclosure of the fees. If those fees even you know, continue to just be as high as Ticketmaster decides they're going to be," said Ford. "You need to address the core business model issue that this is a monopoly that has to be broken up in order to bring more competition to the market."
WFMY News 2 reached out to Universal Media Group, Taylor Swift's record label, for more information about why they chose Ticketmaster to sell tickets for the Eras Tour. We have not heard back at the time of this story's publishing.
What led up to the Eras Tour ticket-buying madness?
Taylor Swift announced the Eras Tour on November 1.
Verified Fan registration on Ticketmaster started that same day.
"Verified Fan creates the best opportunity to get more tickets into the hands of fans who want to attend the show and keep tickets out of the hands of bots," said Ticketmaster. "While Verified Fan does not guarantee that everyone will get a ticket, it does help ensure only fans will be invited to buy tickets."
Fans had nine days to register on the Ticketmaster website for the chance to get a presale code. WFMY News 2 reached out to Ticketmaster for more information on the presale code selection process. We have not heard back at the time of this story's publishing.
There is no public information about how many presale codes Ticketmaster gave out, but they did say there were "millions" of people shopping during presale.
"There were plenty of stadium shows all going on sale at the same time, and that's a little bit tricky," said Dean Budnick, co-author of "Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped" and editor at Relix Magazine. "I think Ticketmaster realized that and then they delayed some of (the presales) in order to make things a little bit easier on the system. But I do think it's fair to say that everyone underestimated the fervid nature of Taylor Swift's fans."
Some fans shopping during presale who waited in the online queue for hours were able to get tickets, while others report making it to the ticket-buying portion of the website and having it freeze and kick them out.
Advice for buying Eras Tour tickets during the general sale
For fans who didn't get a presale code, don't have a Capitol One credit card, or didn't have any luck during the first two presales, tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. But don't count yourself out just yet.
"Boy, it's going to be hard. What ultimately I would counsel is, everybody should give it a go at the moment of the onsale," said Budnick.
You should also consider what platform you're using to buy tickets. Ticketmaster recommends you use a laptop or desktop during ticket sales, but Budnick says there's another option.
"There are various ways into the platform. You can go mobile, you can go computer, said Budnick. "You might want to strategize that yourself individually, not only in terms of what's the easiest for you but there are different ways into the system. So you know, maybe you want to go mobile because you think people are sitting around on their computers. That might help you a little bit, not necessarily, but it could help you."
If you get into Ticketmaster tomorrow during the general sale and tickets are not available, or they're out of your budget, Budnick recommends patience.
"Remember that these shows are actually not going to take place for many, many months down the road," said Budnick.
He says there will be a limited number of tickets released closer to show dates, and there will be tickets that were reserved that get released back into the system for one reason or another as well.
"If you don't absolutely crush it during the general onsale and get what you want and find your own needs, there are additional opportunities," said Budnick.
One of those opportunities is the resale market. Prices can vary, with some listings in the tens of thousands. Do you know where you'll be on April 29? Because some fans buying tickets to Swift's show at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta on StubHub will be $74,023 poorer.
But Budnick said closer to concert dates, the resale market could be a good place for you to shop.
"As we get closer to the show, it's entirely possible that people holding tickets might get a little nervous, might realize that perhaps theoretically, there's a glut," said Budnick. "I can't speak specifically in this instance, but I do know this: I have a friend of mine, who only uses StubHub as a platform, (...) I think he has a two-and-a-half-year record of never paying full price for a ticket going day of because he'll wait it out. That doesn't mean everybody can, but I want people to be aware of that."
Best of luck to all the Swifties shopping for tickets on Friday. You're on your own kid, but you always have been.