Kate Pattison, PhD Candidate in Music Industry, RMIT University
Topics: Taylor Swift, concerts, ticketing, scalping, live music
“There's been chatter online from fans feeling they’ve been priced out of this tour, including the cost of flights, accommodation, and the tickets themselves – which are being sold at high resale prices.
“US fans have waited in virtual queues for hours and others took work off for the opportunity to buy tickets at the original prices only to find they must go to third-party resale sites.
“Swift will only be coming to two Australian cities. This means fans from all over Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Asia will be vying for tickets for only five shows.
“While the US had a system that allowed fans to get earlier ticket access, Australia does not, meaning that everyone – local and global fans, their friends and scalpers – will be trying to purchase tickets all at the same time.
“The demand for Taylor Swift’s concerts is so high that I can't imagine that there won't be ticketing issues in Australia.
“Today's AMEX presale, which was only for cardholders, has already crashed several times, which isn't promising for the general sales.
“Australia has better laws around resales, which will hopefully mean that the resale prices can't get up into the thousands.
“In the US, because so many Swifties couldn't afford to buy tickets from scalpers (or had been scammed), fans resorted to creating a marketplace to buy and sell tickets at face value on Twitter.
“The account has over 185,000 followers, showing just how high the demand is, and how much Swifties care about helping each other.
“That said, ticketing is likely to still be an issue even if scalpers are countered sufficiently.
“If you are going to buy concert tickets, you can prepare by:
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Having your payment details saved within your account and have a backup option available so you can check out in the quickest time possible.
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Knowing exactly how much you're willing to spend, as the longer you take to decide, the higher the chance of them running out.
Kate Pattison is a PhD Candidate in Music Industry at RMIT University. Her research is on online pop music fandom, with a focus on fans of Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Delta Goodrem and BTS. She also researched Swifties in her Honours thesis, Reputation: Negotiating fan identities in the Taylor Swift fandom.
Contact details:
Interviews: Kate Pattison, 0419 529 126 or kate.pattison@rmit.edu.au
General media enquiries: RMIT Communications, 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au
