Taylor Swift performs onstage during iHeartRadio’s Z100 Jingle Ball 2019 Presented By Capital One on December 13, 2019 in Latest York City.
Kevin Mazur | Getty Images
Taylor Swift responded to her fans Friday after Live Nation‘s Ticketmaster said a general public sale of tickets to the superstar’s “Eras” tour could be canceled because there weren’t enough tickets to fulfill high demand.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an out of doors entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to only watch mistakes occur with no recourse,” Swift wrote in a message posted on Instagram. She didn’t mention Live Nation or Ticketmaster in her statement.
“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, in the event that they could handle this sort of demand and we were assured they may. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it surely really pisses me off that quite a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” she wrote.
Individually, The Latest York Times reported Friday that Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into parent company Live Nation’s practices. The probe predates the Swift ticket sale this week, in line with the report. The Justice Department declined to comment.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the corporate’s largest shareholder, Liberty Media, also didn’t immediately comment about Swift’s Friday statement or the Times’ report on a Justice Department investigation.
Ticketmaster announced the cancellation hours after Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei defended Ticketmaster on Thursday. Maffei blamed a surge of demand from 14 million users, including bots, for site disruptions and slow queues for presales earlier this week.
“It is a function of Taylor Swift. The location was purported to open up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans,” Maffei told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “We had 14 million people hit the location, including bots, which should not purported to be there.”
Maffei said Ticketmaster sold greater than 2 million tickets on Tuesday and demand for Swift “could have filled 900 stadiums.”
The “Eras” tour is about to kick off in March 17 in Glendale, Arizona.
Read Swift’s full statement:
Well. It goes without saying that l’m extremely protective of my fans. We have been doing this for many years together and over time, l’ve brought so many elements of my profession in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to enhance the standard of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult for me to trust an out of doors entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to only watch mistakes occur with no recourse.
There are a large number of explanation why people had such a tough time attempting to get tickets and I’m attempting to determine how this example might be improved moving forward. I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, in the event that they could handle this sort of demand and we were assured they may. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it surely really pisses me off that quite a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
And to those that didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to supply more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.
Thanks for wanting to be there. You may have no idea how much which means.
-CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this text.
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