Inspired by Taylor’s To Apple, Love Taylor letter
To Ticketmaster, Love Molly (and many other Swifties)
I write this to explain why so many fans are disappointed in how Ticketmaster handled the presale for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. I feel this deserves an explanation because Ticketmaster has been and will continue to be the primary seller for concert tickets when they are first released and key in creating ways for us to connect with our favorite artists.
I’m sure you are aware that many fans received an email saying that their spot in line was going to be boosted during the presale. I’m not sure you know that many fans who had this boost, as well as Lover Fest tickets, struggled to get tickets, while their accounts or friends/family member's who had non-boosted accounts got tickets way sooner and had better spots in the queue than boosted members. Of course, we are not saying this is the case for every sale but there are enough instances of this to cause one to raise an eyebrow.
Additionally, I’m sure your aware of the the thousands of tickets that are being sold by resellers looking to make a large profit.
I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike any presale I have participated in for Taylor tickets for a tour. I particularly remember how well the reputation presale went and how few tickets were resold.
This is not about me. This is about the fans who are crying on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, etc. that will not get to see their favorite artist. This is about the young adult who can finally afford tickets. This is about the older sibling who worked tirelessly to afford multiple tickets to take their younger sibling. This is about the fans who have seen an artist for every tour or the fan who was finally going to see Taylor for the first time. Now, they cannot, because resellers are already selling hundreds of tickets for thousands and thousands of dollars over face value.
These are not the complaints of one fan. These are the echoed sentiments of millions of fans, for many different artists, in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we feel like there is little we can do to change anything. We simply do not respect how Ticketmaster has been dealing with fans recently.
I realize that Ticketmaster is working towards getting tickets into the hands of actual fans. I think that the reputation verified fan program was beautiful progress. Here is a statistic from it "the Verified Fan system has been effective, according to Ticketmaster, as about 95 percent of tickets purchased through it are not resold." That number is astronomically successful compared to the number of tickets already being sold for exorbitant amounts, just hours after they were purchased.
I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Ticketmaster has tried to do to help fans, but, why move away from these successful elements of the program when the percentage of tickets staying in fans' hands was so high? I hope that we, the fans, can join you in the progression toward a verified fan that seems fair to those who actually want to attend the shows. I think this could be the platform that gets it right and revolutionizes ticket sales.
But I say to Ticketmaster with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and to actually remain "committed to getting more tickets into the hands of fans fairly." We aren’t asking you for free tickets, we just asking that fans actually get to buy them first.
Molly
