Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
Taylor Swift fans angered by ticket prices for U.K. tour dates (msn.com/Cover Media).
“Taylor Swift fans have expressed anger at pricing for the U.K. and Ireland leg of her Reputation world tour after cheaper tickets quickly sold out.”
Tickets for stadium concerts in London, Manchester and Dublin going on sale last Friday with subscribers to Tay’s site able to access a pre-sale on Wednesday, with the standing tickets in question being 55 quid (£55), plus booking fee but quickly selling out and leaving only pricer ton and a score (£120) seated tickets for the not quite “Ready for It”.
A case of “Don’t Blame Me” if not “I Did Something Bad” or…
Nothing particularly new there in either expressed anger or pricing or with with regards missing a concert but it seems fans either seemingly assume Tay herself sets the price or havn’t quite come around to the “Look What You Made Me Do” vindictive, passive-aggressive serpentine lamia (greeklegendsandmyths.com) or luminous crack, vagina dentata armed naked sex robot (thesun.co.uk, Oct. 2017) that is the incarnation of Swift expressed by the Reputation album concept—and a marvelous album it is.
Or perhaps—especially with her “still negotiating” relationship with steaming services (theverge.com, Nov. 2017) being similar to the rapid swings and idealisation and devaluation splitting (Wikipedia) seemingly so characteristic of the relationships described in those songs—it’s just in the non-virtual reality that tours are where the money now is in the digital music age (forbes.com, Jul. 2003):
“They’re (the ticket prices) absolutely ridiculous! Especially right before christmas (sic). I love her but not that much, I’ll wait for the DVD and pay a tenner.”
Wrote one, and another:
“I’m disappointed, not just to be unsuccessful in getting tickets but at the price! @taylorswift13 I’m a massive fan! A fully grown, earning adult but I have a house & family to support and can’t justify paying these prices! Especially this close to Xmas!”
And:
Indeed, the highly commercialised season no doubt already aiming to have you shed many pounds while putting many on with sugary snacks, sparkly baubles, Santa hats, adverts for internet of pricy things things he or she just must have, debt, and dieting resolutions forgotten by January the 2nd.
And perhaps Tay—or whoever actually arranges bookings and prices—did listen, and rub their “Gorgeous” hands together:
“After tickets swiftly sold out, Taylor added three more U.K. and Ireland dates due to ‘overwhelming demand’—one at each venue—London’s Wembley Stadium, Dublin’s Croke Park and Manchester’s Etihad Stadium. Tickets for the new dates go on sale next Friday (8Dec17), with subscribers to Taylor’s website again being able to snap them up two days early.”
Updated 4th January 2018
With disappointment, anger, and empty seat stateside too.
Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour puts off fans and struggles to sell out—but Swift may have the last laugh (telegraph.co.uk).
Three weeks after tickets went on sale for Swift’s 2018 Reputation tour, however, and there are still seats available in stadiums around the world. In fact, none of her US or UK dates has sold out. So what’s going on? Across the Pond, tabloids are declaring that Swift’s forthcoming tour is “shaping up to be a disaster”.
With the same complaints of having to register on her site to get tickets, with the added indignity of having to buy merchandise to advance self in the queue leaving over-excited Swifties “unaware if they could even afford the tickets they were getting in line to buy” after buying Taytay T-shirt and or T-Swizzle ring to kiss:
Swift introduced “Taylor Swift Tix”, a portal on Ticketmaster Verified Fan that granted fans the option to register and select the city where they would like to buy tickets, before giving them the “opportunity to engage in unique activities that advance your spot in line”. Often, these activities would involve buying merchandise, such as a Swift T-shirt ($45) or ring ($60).
But, giving that “last laugh” mentioned in headline, even without bums on all seats the expensive ticket prices could ensure Swifty—or at least Ticketmaster and Swifty’s chap or chapess who handles such details—is living up to her new “reputation”:
But while the higher prices have been contentious, they are paying off for Swift. In fact, industry experts predict that the Reputation tour could become one of the highest grossing of all time, with $450 million of tickets sold by its close at the end of this year. For context, U2 grossed the 2018 equivalent of $801,130,818 with their 360º Tour (tickets for which started at €30), so far the highest-grossing tour ever.
Updated 14th June 2018
A situation repeated on this side of the Atlantic pond:
Does it matter if tours don’t sell out? (bbc.co.uk).
Tickets have remained available for every date of Swift’s UK tour, and fans in Dublin, where she plays this weekend, have reported that tickets are being given away for free.
With tickets seemingly be offered to each and all according to some on Twitter. Although lamentedly not get a pricey ticket for either of the Wembley Stadium shows next week I’ll not be turning up just on the off chance as I sometimes did in my teens.
A series of possible reasons perhaps why is then presented including empty seats being deliberate, bad timing, and touts giving live music an image problem, but none as simple as tickets I saw quoted in a week or so back in nour local Gazette being outrageously in excess of 120 quid to pay for TayTay “cavorting around Europe with a gigantic, double-sided stage, a pair of inflatable cobras, a jewel-encrusted microphone and hordes of dancers”.
Accordingly, fans are being asked to stump up between £60 and £200 for tickets, with VIP packages reaching a staggering £735.
Recent/related stories
- Pink urges Taylor Swift and Katy Perry to end feud (Latest Picks 9th October 2017)
- “Look What You Made Me Do”: Taylor Swift sited Look What You Made Me Do billboard opposite Kylie Jenner’s (Latest Picks 6th September 2017)
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