Ticketmaster apologizes to Taylor Swift, saying overwhelming demand broke records and site

The ticket sales company Ticketmaster apologized to Taylor Swift and her fans on Friday following the major issues users had while trying to purchase tickets to Swift’s upcoming tour. 

“We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets,” the company tweeted. 

The company also said it wanted to provide an explanation of what happened after many users reported that the website crashed or they experienced hours-long wait times while they tried to purchase their tickets. 

In a linked statement, Ticketmaster said it knew fan interest in tickets would be large based on the 3.5 million people who preregistered for the ticket presale for “The Eras Tour” on Tuesday. That figure marked the largest registration in the company’s history. 

About 40 percent of registered fans have historically bought tickets during the presale, and most people purchase three tickets on average, the company said. Based on that, Ticketmaster said it sent codes to 1.5 million people to purchase tickets from the 52 show dates, and 2 million people were placed on a waiting list based on the chance that tickets might still be available after the first group finished purchasing. 

The company said it has usually been able to manage a large volume on the site but that a “staggering” number of bots plus a number of users who did not have codes drove site traffic to be four times its previous peak. 

Ticketmaster said it slowed down some sales and pushed back others to stabilize the system, leading to longer wait times. 

The statement comes after Swift weighed in on the chaos in an Instagram story on Friday, slamming Ticketmaster and saying that it is difficult for her to “trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties.” She said she is trying to figure out how the situation can be improved in the future. 

Ticketmaster said more than 2 million tickets were able to be sold on Tuesday despite the issues.

Some political leaders and Swift fans have called for investigations into Ticketmaster for potential antitrust violations following the issues earlier this week. The company merged with Live Nation, another ticket-selling company, in 2010. 

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Justice Department is investigating Ticketmaster with a focus on whether it abused its market power. The investigation began before the ticket-selling issues with Swift’s tour, according to the Times, but the chaos surrounding the sales has shined a spotlight on the probe.