The Senate Judiciary Committee sent an ominous message to Ticketmaster ahead of the sale of Beyoncé’s much-anticipated world tour.
Just a week after the committee grilled Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, over the Taylor Swift Eras Tour fiasco, Thursday made it clear how they think the monopoly will handle the upcoming Beyoncé sale.
“We’re watching @Ticketmaster,” they wrote ominously in a tweet that accompanied a CNN video in which they reported how their fan base, the Beyhive, is already anticipating another meltdown.
Like Swifties, Beyhive had To for a Verified Fan presale code, which not all fans receive. Those who receive one will then stand in a virtual queue on their chosen date to compete with other fans for the coveted spots.
Ticketmaster has previously announced that demand for Group A — which includes nine cities — has reached “more than 800 percent” of reserved tickets scheduled for sale, and presale code registration doesn’t even end on Friday noon EST.
The Senate Judiciary Committee sent an ominous message to Ticketmaster ahead of the sale of Beyoncé’s much-anticipated world tour
“We’re watching @Ticketmaster,” they wrote ominously in a tweet that accompanied a CNN video in which they reported how their fan base, the Beyhive, is already anticipating another meltdown
Group B has until February 9th, while Group C must register by February 16th to potentially receive a pre-sale access code.
Unlike the Taylor Swift sale — which released tickets for all tour dates simultaneously to presale code holders — Ticketmaster has drafted an updated release schedule, hopefully ensuring Beyoncé fans don’t run into the same issue that saw virtual lines momentarily go dead Got stuck and fans were kicked out of the queue.
Instead, the three groups of the BeyHive will compete for tickets on different dates.
Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z signed a $200 million deal with Live Nation in 2017 that will last 10 years and guarantee at least three albums, tours and music releases.
“For over 9 years we’ve traveled the world producing historical musical experiences,” the rapper said at the time. This renewed partnership is a testament to our longstanding relationship and the talented individuals at Live Nation. Over the next 10 years we will continue to redefine the live events landscape.’
As for the Taylor Swift fiasco, Ticketmaster blamed it on bots and “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets.
A statement at the time said: “The Eras [Tour] Sale made one thing clear: Taylor Swift is an unstoppable force and continues to break records. We strive to make ticket purchasing as easy as possible for fans, however this has not been the case for many people trying to purchase tickets for the Eras Tour. We would like to share some information to explain what happened.’
Ticketmaster explained that before sales begin, fans must register with their Verified Fan system, which is designed to “manage high-demand shows — identifying real people and weeding out bots.”
The statement continued, “Based on fan interest at registration, we knew this was going to be big. Over 3.5 million people have pre-registered for Taylor’s Verified Fan, the largest registration in history.
Ticketmaster blamed bots and “unprecedented” demand for Taylor Swift tickets for last year’s meltdown, and has taken other precautions — including staggering dates and dividing Beyoncé fans into groups — to avoid another fiasco
“The huge demand for Taylor’s tour led to the artistic team’s decision to add additional dates – doubling the tour and the number of tickets available so more fans could make it to the shows.
“In the past, about 40 percent of invited fans actually came and bought tickets, and most bought an average of three tickets. Working with the artist team, around 1.5 million people were invited to presale for all 52 show dates, including the 47 sold by Ticketmaster.
‘The remaining 2 million verified fans have been placed on the waiting list.’
The statement added that Taylor “broke records and parts of our website,” continuing, “In the past, working with verified fan invite codes has worked because we’ve been able to manage the volume going to the Website comes to buy tickets.
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“However, this time the overwhelming number of bot attacks, as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes, resulted in unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in a total of 3.5 billion system requests – four [times] our previous peak.’
Shortly after Taylor Swift’s collapse, Bad Bunny faced disaster, with hundreds of fans turned away from a Mexico City venue after being told their tickets purchased through Ticketmaster were invalid.
As the monopoly was grilled by the Senate committee, the company took a line to Swift to apologize.
“We apologize to the fans. Our apologies to Mrs Swift. We have to get better, and we will do better,” said Joe Berchtold, LiveNation’s president and chief financial officer.