#464
Black Friday Came Early
Published:
Nov 21, 2022
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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What’s more intense than the dawn stampede at Target? As it turns out – Taylor Swift concerts. The star’s “Eras Tour” marks the first in five years and sent fans scrambling ahead of tickets coming available for presale on Tuesday. Sites like Ticketmaster and SeatGeek came under intense strain, to the extent that Ticketmaster crashed and caused the Capital One presale event to be shifted a full day, to Wednesday, and for the public sale to be canceled entirely.
In an environment in which fierce competition from fans and bots alike have put a serious damper on consumer experience, credit card-related presale events don’t seem to be able to keep up with their glory days. What was once valued as exclusive early access, some priority fans were left stranded waiting in line for hours on end, only to be confronted with “sold out” notices by the time they reached the front of the queue.
Since web2 experiences don’t seem to be cutting it, it might be about time to move onto web3. At the very least, early access programs can take a line out of a DeFi infrastructure playbook to create end-to-end solutions to manage storefronts, sales, and distribution more efficiently. This innovation is already well underway for NFTs and web3 native experiences – so why not T-Swift tickets too? Going forward, one thing we can say with a high level of certainty is that if Taylor sticks to her script, Ticketmaster is going to have a very, very nasty song written about it.
Portfolio News
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Black Friday Came Early
Taylor Swift’s concert ticket sales plagued by Ticketmaster delays - A rush to buy tickets for Taylor Swift’s first tour in five years—and five albums—left fans scrambling and distraught as Ticketmaster’s system was overwhelmed in markets across the U.S. and would-be buyers waited in long lines. Live Nation Entertainment's Ticketmaster site, which is selling tickets for the 2023 tour via a system meant to give preferential treatment to longtime fans, crashed in New York and other cities amid a crush of fans trying to snap up what industry executives have anticipated will be the hottest tickets since the lift of pandemic restrictions on the live touring business. Read more
Ticketmaster faces mounting scrutiny after Taylor Swift ticket chaos - Ticketmaster is facing mounting scrutiny, including from lawmakers and state authorities, over its sale practices after outcry from Taylor Swift fans over website outages and long waits to buy tickets for the singer’s upcoming “Eras” tour. In a letter addressed to Michael Rapino, the president and CEO of Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation Entertainment, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., expressed, “serious concerns about the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers.” Read more
Ticketmaster sells more than two million Taylor Swift tickets in one day, a record - Ticketmaster on Thursday said that even though the presale was only available to people who had registered and been invited to participate, that didn’t prevent others, including bad actors, from attempting to do so. “The staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site,” it said. Read more
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Select Financings
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