As though getting anything like a quality ticket to a high profile artist’s show wasn’t already difficult enough, Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster have partnered under the guise of getting tickets past scalpers directly to fans, but in reality may actually end up costing these fans more.
__________________________
Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0
Let’s face it, concert ticket prices for major acts are astronomical for anything but the nosebleed section of the venue, as the secondary market gets their hands on already high-priced tickets and increases the price. If that wasn’t bad enough, a new scheme hatched between Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster may bring the ultimate price of concert tickets to a brand new level.
Ticketmaster is launching something called “Taylor Swift Tix powered by Ticketmaster Verified Fan,” under the guise of bypassing the scalpers to get tickets directly into the hands of fans. Sounds good on the surface, the only problem is that it may ultimately cost fans a lot more in the long run.
The ticketing company has used it’s Verified Fan program (which is an algorithm that determines if you’re a scalper, bot or a fan) successfully for Ed Sheeran and Hamilton tickets in the past, but the program with Taylor has a new twist – the more music you purchase and the more you promote Swift, the more likely your chances to get a ticket.
So here how it works. First you pre-order the CD (yes, she’s trying to squeeze the last drop out of the format) from either a big box retailer or Swift’s website. If you want to receive it on the day it’s released you pay an extra $48.03 for expedited shipping (UPS is one of Swift’s sponsor). That means that you’re paying a whopping $63 for a CD!!!! This guarantees your place in line for concert tickets, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll actually get them.
What makes this even worse is that you can buy the CD up to 13 times to increase your spot in line for tickets!
If you can’t afford (or hopefully refuse to pay) the price, there’s an alternative. You can watch the video for “Look What You Made Me Do” for a lower boost in line, with boosts automatically applied for up to five views per day.
This feels pretty sleazy, especially since fans are being forced to purchase something they probably can’t even use in a CD. The only good thing about it is that the secondary ticket brokers and scalpers are cut out of the picture and most of the money goes to Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster.
That said, artist’s are supposed to care about their fans, not gouge them. Swift once had a reputation for caring deeply about her ordinary fans, but now it looks like the only ones she cares about are the ones that will either pay her or promote her, neither of which she needs.
Look for this to happen more in the future. Let’s hope that fans will be forced to buy something more useful than an obsolete piece of plastic.