Taylor Swift’s presale for her upcoming Eras Tour went off with several glitches Tuesday with Ticketmaster failing to keep up with the unprecedented demand to its site.
While many were quick to share their ire online, U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to the hiccup by pointing to a real problem that has very little to do with Swift’s popularity: Ticketmaster’s monopolization of the live music industry.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly,” AOC wrote on Twitter. “It’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in. Break them up.”
While the congresswoman’s timing was only a winking nod to the turmoil in the Swift fandom, one astute Swiftie quickly responded to AOC’s tweet: “You couldn’t get tickets either huh?”
Another follower, Forbes writer Paul Tassi, retweeted AOC with the caption, “I too also did not get Taylor Swift tickets,” later adding, “to be clear she [AOC] is right and I am not being sarcastic.”
AOC’s blasting of Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment at large comes while more concertgoers are decrying the company’s stranglehold on ticket prices and accusing them of abusing their power. While Ticketmaster and Live Nation have long been prominent sellers for live events, AOC’s tweet questions their 2009 merger and whether or not the company has violated the conditions that legalized that deal.
So back to Swift’s Eras Tour: As part of the Ticketmaster Verified Plan program, emails went out to Swift fans Monday, who were then granted presale access via text messages with unique codes for every user. But allegedly, not all access codes were saved correctly on Ticketmaster’s backend, which led to purchasing queues freezing and Ticketmaster ultimately pulling plug altogether and delaying sales to Tuesday afternoon.
Ticketmaster said with the announcement that “hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold” with “historically unprecedented demand,” but due to the volume of interest in the tour, they were unexpectedly forced to delay the presale window for West Coast sales in cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Clara and Seattle from 10 a.m. local to 3 p.m.
“Thank you for your patience as we continue managing this huge demand,” they tweeted from their official account.
Of course, AOC was not the only witness upset by this turn of events. Read on for more fan reactions to “The Great War” of Swift’s Eras Tour ticket presale below.