You’d think Taylor Swift would be happy with the way her 52-date “Eras Tour” has gotten underway.
In November, in a presale for registered fans, Ticketmaster sold some 2 million tickets for Swift’s shows in a single day, a global record. Thanks to a huge surge in traffic — including from bots and brokers — fans reported delays and error messages, while the resulting lack of inventory led the company to cancel a sale to the general public. Even so: This was the strongest demand for a concert series in history. Surely some hiccups could be forgiven.
Not so. Swift said it was “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.” At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers competed to express the most disdain for Ticketmaster, which merged with the promotional company Live Nation Entertainment Inc. in 2010. The resulting colossus, several senators maintained, needs to be broken up.
