Ticketmaster has issued an apology to fans of Taylor Swift after ticket sales for her Eras tour were plunged into chaos.
The ticket sales business published a statement when fans were left frustrated as their website repeatedly crashed when they were logging on to try and nab a ticket to see Taylor.
They uploaded the apology when Taylor herself also expressed her anger at the failed sale of tickets to her string of shows launched to coincide with the recent release of her album Midnights.
The selling outlet said: “We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets. Next, we feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened..."
They then outlined a series of reasons for the failure to deliver a reliable sale, admitting that their technical infrastructure was not up to the task.
The statement was issued after it was announced that the US Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment - Ticketmaster’s parent company.
The probe will investigate if Live Nation Entertainment is guilty of an abuse of its power in the live music industry.
A New York Times report says that the investigation actually predates this latest controversy.
The investigation has members of the Justice Department’s antitrust division speaking with music venues and industry workers about Live Nation with them maintaining anonymity to aid the probe.
Taylor meanwhile sympathised with her fans in an Instagram post where she admitted her anger at the situation.
She said: “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.
"I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4million people got tickets, but it really p***es me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
Taylor then admitted her hope for anyone who had failed to get a ticket to be provided with a fresh opportunity.
She added: “And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get-together and sing these songs,” she wrote. “Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”
Tickets for Taylor's tour went on presale on Tuesday (November 15) but the Ticketmaster website crash left fans disappointed when they could not secure tickets - with many appearing on resale sites for staggering amounts up to $22,000 shortly afterwards.
A further general sale was due to go live on Friday (November 19) but was cancelled due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.”
