Taylor Swift calls Ticketmaster fiasco 'excruciating' to watch

Platform facing criticism for holding monopoly on tickets and holding difficult pre-sale for fans

The cover album of 'Midnights'. Taylor Swift's 10th album crashed Spotify moments after its release. Photo: Republic Records

While unremarkable, Taylor Swift's self-titled 2006 album put her on the list of ones to watch. Photo: Big Machine Records

'Fearless' (2008) was an assured collection of songs by the increasingly confident Swift. Photo: Big Machine Records

'Speak Now' (2010) had Swift lyrically detailing her growth from adolescence to adulthood. Photo: Big Machine Records

With 'Red' (2012), Swift made her bid for mainstream success. Photo: Big Machine Records

The spectacular '1989' (2014) remains Swift's best album. Photo: Big Machine Records

'Reputation' (2017) was overwrought and too dark to be fully embraced by her fans. Photo: Big Machine Records

'Lover' (2019) was a welcome course correction, yet sounded messy and unwieldy. Photo: Republic Records

'Folklore' (2020) was a stunning effort that had Swift write more narrative-driven songs. Photo: Republic Records

'Evermore' (2020) was atmospheric and cinematic. Photo: Republic Records

Singer Taylor Swift said on Friday that it was “excruciating” to watch fans deal with a difficult Ticketmaster presale for tickets to her coming tour, with the general sale cancelled.

“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 going forward,” she said in an Instagram post.

“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 broke the record for most tickets ever sold for an artist — more than two million — in one day on Ticketmaster, while fans buying tickets on the platform dealt with site glitches and long queue times.

“It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but [ …] a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” she said.

Tickets were expected to be available to the general public on Friday after two days of presale purchases.

“Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” a tweet by Ticketmaster read.

Swift's statement appeared to imply that all tickets for her tour were sold before the scheduled general sale and additional shows may be added.

“To those who didn't get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs,” she wrote. “Thank you for wanting to be there.”

Ticketmaster this week faced backlash from fans as well as politicians, as people could only buy tickets to her first tour in five years through its platform.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the US Justice Department has been investigating Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation.

“What is going on with Ticketmaster is an example of why we need strong antitrust enforcement,” Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeted.

“Monopolies wreak havoc on consumers and our economy. When there is no competition to incentivise better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”

The attorney general in Swift's home state of Tennessee said this week that the office would look into consumer complaints and investigate if protection laws were breached during the presale.