What Taylor Swift’s: The Era Tour Revealed about Ticketmaster’s Unethical Engineering Practices

November 24, 2022 gmjaeger

In my goal to connect everything in my life back to Taylor Swift, I am going to discuss the recent public scrutiny that Ticketmaster has faced after the pre-sale debacle for Taylor Swift’s: The Eras Tour, and the unethical nature of the company and offer potential solutions/next steps.

So for anyone unaware of the current situation, last Tuesday (November 15th) at 10am pre-sale went live for Taylor Swift’s: The Eras Tour, and everything went up in flames immediately following. Ticketmaster originally stated that they gave out 1.5 million verified fan presale codes (which should have theoretically allowed 1.5 million to buy tickets at this earlier time), but at 10am over 14 million people joined the queue. This influx of people led the website to crash and caused people to have to spend their entire day waiting in line just to not get tickets. Taylor Swift described a fan’s experience as if they “ went through several bear attacks to get [tickets]”.

This incident has caused uproar of fans to speak about the unethical nature of Ticketmaster, and the monopoly they have created since merging with Live Nation (and even prior). Even back in 2009 when the merger was just being announced, people were concerned about the potential monopoly forming. CAPAF’s David Balto explains to the Senate Judiciary Committee that ”by combining a ticketing monopolist with a dominant firm in marquee concert promotion, the merged firm will be able to foreclose competition in both markets, leading to less choice and higher prices”. It is clear since before 2009 that Ticketmaster’s goal is to gain full control of the ticketing industry and to use that power to exploit their customer’s for money (1).

One complaint many fan’s had about the ticket buying process for The Era’s Tour was the excessive amount of “service” fees that they were required to pay in addition to the cost of a seat. These fees can cost upwards of 30% of what one would pay for the ticket (2). They are able to do this because they are creating a monopoly in the ticketing industry. Additionally, Ticketmaster plays a large role in the resale ticket industry. Undercover investigations have revealed that the company encourages scalpers, people/bots who mass purchase tickets and they resell them for a crazy uncharged price, because they can collect a fee from the original buyer and an additional fee when the ticket is repurchased (3).

One thing I would like to consider with all this information is what led these events to occur. The development of modern technology and the internet has changed the way they buy concert tickets. With the development of the internet came the development of digital tickets. Digital tickets introduce new levels of convenience and accessibility for those who would not be able to otherwise purchase a ticket in person. But with this also came companies like Ticketmaster that are able to use this to add hidden additional charges/fees, and encourage increased resale prices (4).

Since the failure of The Era’s Tour, several investigations have been launched against Ticketmaster for being a monopoly upon merging with Live Nation. Moving forward, both technical, social and political solutions must be implemented in order to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. First, we need to implement legislation to control the pricing, service fees, etc. with websites like Ticketmaster. Additionally, if technical barriers were added to physically prevent a company from charging certain resale ticket prices, it would make concerts more accessible for all people. For example, I have seen people trying to resell floor seats at Taylor Swift’s: The Era’s Tour for over $50,000 a ticket. Even as a very big Taylor fan, there is nobody who should be paying $50,000 a ticket; that is absurd and unfair. And finally, we need to make sure there is continual awareness about the consequences and harms of monopolies. While Taylor Swift’s: The Era’s Tour pre-sale did not go as planned, it did bring to light the unethical actions of Ticketmaster, and right now all we can do is continue to spread awareness and wait to see what further actions Taylor Swift will take.

Sources

Tags:
- Taylor Swift
- Unethical Engineering