- Ticketmaster apologized for its chaotic and botched ticket-sale system for Taylor Swift's upcoming tour.
- In a blog post, the company provided few solutions and seemed to again blame issues on high demand and bots.
Ticketmaster is on the defensive against mobs of angry Swifties calling out its disastrous ticket sale for Taylor Swift's upcoming "The Eras Tour."
"We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets," Ticketmaster wrote in a tweet Friday night. "We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened."
The tweet linked to a blog on the company's website, which provides a beat-by-beat explanation of everything that's happened since tickets went on sale Nov. 15, but also doesn't appear to offer solutions for mending the chaos.
"We're working to shore up our tech for the new bar that has been set by demand for the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour," Ticketmaster wrote. "Once we get through that, if there are any next steps, updates will be shared accordingly."
In the post, the company again emphasized "unprecedented" demand for tickets and seemed to place blame on a "staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have codes" in what led to lengthy wait times, glitches, and website outages on Tuesday.
"Never before has a Verified Fan onsale sparked so much attention — or traffic. This disrupted the predictability and reliability that is the hallmark of our Verified Fan platform," Ticketmaster wrote.
Everyone from Swift superfans to politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling out Ticketmaster and parent company LiveNation for its botched sale and problematic "verified" fan system, which the company says is used for "identifying real humans and weeding out bots" for high-demand shows."
Swift herself chimed in on Friday in an Instagram post, expressing disappointment.
"It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse," Swift wrote. "It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."
According to Ticketmaster, a record-breaking 3.5 million fans registered to the verified presale in hopes of snagging a ticket on Nov. 15. Of this total, 1.5 million were pre-selected, and 2 million were placed on a waiting list.
However, despite claiming to open ticket sales to just the 1.5 million pre-selected verified fans, LiveNation chairman Greg Maffei told CNBC earlier this week that 14 million total attempted to buy tickets on Tuesday, including bot accounts, which contributed to site crashes.
The madness resulted in Ticketmaster overselling the tickets to the tune of a record-breaking 2.4 million, the most ever for any artist on a single day. On Thursday, the company subsequently closed its general public sale, citing "extraordinarily high demands" and "insufficient remaining ticket inventory."
On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice is opening an investigation into LiveNation over antitrust concerns and possible abuse of power. The day prior, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he is also investigating complaints surrounding the ticket sale.
In its blog post, Ticketmaster wrote "even when a high demand onsale goes flawlessly from a tech perspective, many fans are left empty handed," adding that based on demand, Swift would need to perform more than 900 stadium shows, or a concert every night for 2.5 years to meet demand.
"While it's impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that's what we're focused on," the company wrote.