It was 9:30 A.M., November 15, and I knew there had been a glitch. Ticketmaster, an evil monopoly set on bringing the world to ruins, had sent out 1.5 million presale ticket codes for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” but allowed 14 million devices to log on to the website. The website crashed, and with it, my dreams were crushed. 

But that’s besides the point. Many other fans, including myself, sat for hours, waiting. Silently, and not so silently, praying, hoping to finally be let past the daunting 2000+ queue. Frenzied panics overwhelmed fans as they finally got past the queue and were met with quickly disappearing tickets. Fans tried to snatch up these tickets, and some were successful in achieving their wildest dreams, while others will forever be haunted by the fact that they could not get tickets. 

The next day, the Capital One presale began. Ticketmaster actually used some decent common sense, asking for the code before the queue instead of after, as they had done for the previous day’s disaster. Because of this single change, the Capital One presale was able to go somewhat more smoothly. That being said, the two presales sold 2.5 million tickets. Ticketmaster sold so many that they canceled the public on sale. When you go on to other ticket websites, though, these tickets fans fought tooth and bone for are reselling for more than $50,000. Obviously, this created a lot of bad blood with Ticketmaster. As my tears ricocheted from the horrors, I knew Ticketmaster had fabricated death by a thousand cuts for fans everywhere. 

Only a few days after, many Senators voiced their upset with Ticketmaster—is the parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, abusing its powers in the music industry as a monopoly? Of course, it was a slightly different upset compared to Taylor Swift fans, but still an upset. The Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation against Live Nation Entertainment. Taylor Swift also shared a message in regards to Ticketmaster’s failure. She said, “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.” This can only make fans wonder, did Taylor Swift see Ticketmaster’s grasp on the music industry, and mastermind its takedown?

Hopefully, the antitrust investigation will show some results that are favorable to not only Taylor Swift’s fans, but also any music fans that have faced the cruelty of Ticketmaster. For now, I can only hope that soon I’ll get better.