Hunched over computers, phones, and monitors, millions of fans across the globe scramble to access Ticketmaster when the clock reaches 10 A.M.  Swift fever has spread, and 15 million people fight for tickets to see her live in concert next year.  Eventually, only 2.4 million will succeed.

For singer-songwriters in the music industry, relevance is a difficult thing to cling to. Careers are spent clambering for Billboard Hot 100 spots or appearances on late night shows. But Taylor Swift has captivated audiences for over 15 years. Earlier this year, she dropped her 10th original studio album, Midnights, marking her first release of new music since 2020’s Evermore. For many, her music represents an unseen form of empowerment.  Swift’s constant growth and evolution since her 2006 debut has made it hard for the media to nail down stereotypes about her, despite their critical and often misogynistic approach.

Midnights was preceded by a series of easter eggs and TikTok videos, slowly unveiling the track list.  The release was followed by a flurry of action from Swift, including the release of Midnights (3am Edition), which added seven more original songs.  Swift also dropped two new music videos for songs on Midnights, and made appearances on several late night shows, slowly feeding content to her army of self-titled Swifties.  Most significantly, Swift announced The Eras Tour,  her first tour since 2018. Registration for Verified Fan Presale opened with her announcement, a status that allows fans early access to tickets.  Hours-long waits and crashing websites greeted fans as they attempted to register themselves, foreshadowing a bloodbath on Ticketmaster and reselling websites when general sale begins.  

For the 3 million selected fans with Verified Presale, tickets became available on Tuesday, November 15 at 10 A.M. local venue time.  Supposedly, there is a recipe to Ticketmaster success; log in with several accounts but don’t open more than one tab, have your payment method set up on the website, have your seats picked out, and whatever you do, don’t refresh your browser.  Despite Ticketmaster’s extreme preparation, fans were still met with error messages and website glitches when trying to access tickets.  Due to these errors, Verified Fan Presale was far from guaranteed ticket access.  

“My computer crashed when I was trying to get tickets on Ticketmaster,” said freshman Elles Krieckhaus, a lifelong Taylor Swift fan who managed to secure Verified Fan Presale but was ultimately failed by Ticketmaster.  

“It was really stressful.  My dad signed into my account because I was at school and he had all of his monitors up and it crashed at 10 a.m. I think it took around two hours to get [tickets],” said junior Laurel Bentley, a Taylor Swift fan who won her battle with Ticketmaster. 

On Thursday, November 17, one day before Taylor Swift’s general sale was set to begin, Ticketmaster announced that the public general sale was canceled, due to high demand and lack of ticket inventory.  Devastated fans took to Twitter to express their frustrations with the lack of planning on Ticketmaster’s part, claiming that the high demand and website traffic was predictable.  The situation was frustrating for all parties, and Swift took to Instagram to share her own frustrations with Ticketmaster and their partner Live Nation.  Speculation that the Eras Tour will be Swift’s last tour began to circulate, leaving a rising sense of apprehension for those of us who have not yet secured tickets.  Tickets are now available on resale websites for as much as $20,000 each.