Meet the Swifties trying to take down Ticketmaster

Swifties are dressing for revenge.

After logging onto the largest ticketing platform in the world on the morning of Monday, Nov. 14, Blake Barnett was able to purchase a verified fan pre-sale ticket to the Eras Tour. It was certain that the demand would be high. Swift has not toured in over five years. Liberty Media CEO and Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei had no idea how many people would visit the site that day.

According to Maffei, the site was supposed to be open for 1.5 million Taylor Swift fans. The site had 14 million hits. We sold over two million tickets despite all the challenges.

It was a nightmare for millions of people. Barnett, a 30-year-old lawyer, said that when he bought tickets to his show, everything went to shit. We were waiting in line for two or three hours before it stopped. I was pushed up to the Denver show on the 15th when it happened. When I got "You're the next in line" it gave me an error code and told me to rejoin the queue. I was pushed back. Three times.

Barnett's experience was not the only one. Fans waited in the queue for hours just to receive error messages, as the website crashed half an hour before verified fan tickets were set to go on sale.

Swift addressed the issue with her fans on her social media accounts. The singer said that they askedTicketmaster multiple times if they could handle the demand.

The Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation.

The statement was released by the company on November 19th. It apologized to Taylor and her fans, who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets, before addressing some of the more logistical errors. About 15% of interactions across the site experienced issues, and that's 15% too many, including passcode validation errors that caused fans to lose tickets.

The company's explanation of the debacle merited more ire for fans of Swift and other artists. Fans know how hard it can be to wait in a queue. It's a problem that so much of the live music industry depends on Ticketmaster, it's the biggest company in ticket-selling. At the time of the merger, Live Nation was the largest concert promoter in the world.

Barbra Streisand paid over $500 in fees for her and her friends' tickets to one of Swift's Chicago tour dates, as well as dynamic pricing, which is the very own version of surge pricing that's intended, in order to get her tickets to one of Swift's Chicago tour The presale for Harry Styles' Love on Tour UK dates crashed the site after Bruce Springsteen tickets jumped up to $4,000. There has been no incident that has caused the kind of response Swift's Eras Tour has received.

The ticketing giant is being broken up by antitrust advocates and Swifties.

One in 1.5 million Swifties received a code that allowed them to enter the Verified Fan window. She and thousands of other people took to the social networking site to complain about the process. The upper bowl and lower bowl were the only tickets available for the Denver show. The tickets for the lower bowl were $355 each. I have floor seats that were less expensive in Massachusetts.

One step further, Barnett took her frustration to a new level. If you want to be added to a GC, she asked if there was anything we could do to take action against the ticketmaster. She referred to the group chat as "vigilante legal," a reference to Swift's song. 35 Swifties joined it to plan. It is now a full-fledged limited liability company. There needs to be something done. They're not following the law. The merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster should not have happened.

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One of the Swifties who joined Barnett's chat immediately wasKat, who asked to be referred to by their first name. "I'm not a lawyer, but I wanted to give my expertise in any way that I could," she said. She works in compliance

She was promised "preferred access" to the Verified Fan pre-sale in order to be a Swift fan. The holders of Lover Fest tickets didn't get access to the presale. Lovers Fest ticket holders were told that they did not have priority for the new pre-sale, according to a report. A consumer base that has nowhere else to go for their ticket buying needs is what I take issue with.

Swift said she and her team are trying to figure out how this situation can be better. It's been nearly 27 years since Pearl Jam took on Ticketmaster in court, but if any artist can get away with it, it might be one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She said that she has brought many elements of her career in house. The quality of my fans' experience has been improved SPECIFICALLY by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It's hard for me to trust an outside entity with my loyalties and relationships, and it's even harder for me to watch mistakes happen.

This is larger than Swift. It's a problem for fans of all artists. People who clearly aren't Swifties are giving Barnett information on the Sherman Antitrust Act. She is reaching out to other Swifties to get proof that will help them in filing reports to the FTC. They're shopping around to politicians.

Fans were given the chance to learn about the dangers of monopolies and the importance of antitrust law. She said that the merger of LiveNation and Ticketmaster should not have been approved. They all supported antitrust enforcement.

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Elizabeth Burg didn't pay much attention to antitrust law before November 14. Buying tickets was how Burg got radicalized. She encouraged her fellow Swifties to sign the petition.

Burg is similar to Barnett in that she is bringing her expertise to the discussion. The company is making more money when fans are stressed out because of the chaotic user experience. TheTicketmaster did not respond to the request for comment.

I am aware of the power of Taylor Swift's fans. This was the right time to make a change. Burg was trying to get the energy from the group to direct it towards something.

A young woman who works for a progressive candidate sees the potential of organizing fandom to effect real-life change.

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Aly started a campaign on her fan site The Swiftiest calling for direct civic action and digital organizing to take down Ticketmaster. Swifties and fans of music everywhere need to end the era of outrageous fees, hours-long queue to nowhere, glitchy processing and terrible customer service, that's whatgilante legal is about. Aly received over 400 sign-ups in a day. They say the goal is to mobilize a network of fans that can't be ignored.

The most passionate fans tend to be the most natural organizers. According to Aly, they just happen to win voters' choice awards. We could point them in a different direction.