Taylor Swift is weighing in on the Ticketmaster meltdown surrounding her forthcoming tour, saying that it “pisses [her] off” that many of her fans “feel like they went through several bear attacks” to get their hands on tickets.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties,” the “Anti-Hero” said in a Friday post on her Instagram story, “and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
“There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward,” the 32-year-old Grammy Award winner wrote.
The message to her more than 230 million Instagram followers marked the first public comments Swift has made since Ticketmaster customers reported widespread issues purchasing tickets to “The Eras Tour” during a presale event earlier in the week.
The company blamed “historically unprecedented demand” for the fiasco and canceled a public sale of tickets that had been scheduled for Thursday.
Several lawmakers voiced concerns about Ticketmaster following the ticketing drama, citing its 2010 merger with Live Nation and possible antitrust consent decree violations. Some openly called for the company to be broken up.
When asked for comment, Ticketmaster directed ITK to a statement the company issued on Friday, in which it apologized to Swift and her fans and offered an explanation for the chaos surrounding the ticket presale.
“The biggest venues and artists turn to us because we have the leading ticketing technology in the world – that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and clearly for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour onsale it wasn’t. But we’re always working to improve the ticket buying experience. Especially for high demand onsales, which continue to test new limits,” the company said in the statement.
“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,” Swift said in her post.
“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house,” Swift said. “I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do.”
Calling it “truly amazing” that 2.4 million people purchased tickets to the nationwide tour, Swift added, “But it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
“And to those who didn’t get tickets,” Swift wrote thanking her fans, “all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.”
— Updated Nov. 19 at 12:08 p.m.