Last Tuesday, Taylor Swift sold 2 million tickets for her upcoming “Eras Tour” presale – more tickets than any artist in a single day in Ticketmaster history. This made for a lot of happy campers, and at least as many disgruntled fans who were on the outside looking in, facing extensive wait times, glitches, and even tickets disappearing from their cart. Ticketmaster canceled the main onsale outright due to the early demand, and Swift herself isn’t too pleased with how this all went down.
As Ticketmaster faces heightened scrutiny from fans and the Justice Department, CivicScience surveyed the impact of recent news on U.S. concertgoers. More than half of U.S. adults claim that recent competitive Ticketmaster sales and steep resale costs for artists like Swift, Blink-182, Paramore, and others make them ‘much less likely’ to buy concert tickets in general – with three-quarters of adults at least somewhat less likely. Further CivicScience data show just 9% of adults claim to like Ticketmaster, and more than four times as many dislike it.
Although Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s merger in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment was met with some backlash at the time, calls for antitrust investigation have significantly ramped up in recent weeks. Two-thirds of U.S. adults consider Ticketmaster to be a monopoly in the event ticket sales industry, which might make this one of the least polarizing investigations the Justice Department could launch.
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