Taylor Swift’s Gamification of Ticket Sales • Page 4

Nope, nope, and nope.

This is TAYLOR SWIFT. This is not someone who is struggling with ticket or merch sales.

If this was a smaller artist, sure, whatever. Smaller artists do need more support, and people should make sure they buy merch etc from them. But a massive, super fucking rich popstar? There's no pity to be had there. Her label will be making ridiculously insane amounts already, without these shitty drop-in-the-water revenue avenues.

 

It's borderline impossible to get Taylor Swift tickets anyway. I've tried. They get bought up in the first 15 minutes of the general on sale. You can be there right when they go on sale, and it's still dumb luck as to whether or not you actually get to buy anything. In part, that's because there is a lot of demand there. Taylor is arguably the biggest pop star in the world. In part, it's also because scalping is still so fucking easy to do, even with most of the "strict rules" that some artists try to adopt. (Sidebar: four types of ID is insane. I don't think I even have four forms of ID, at least not that I want to carry around at a concert. Pretty sure most teenagers/pre-teens that dominate the fanbases for artists like Ed Sheeren and Taylor Swift also do not have four forms of ID.)

Does this strategy make it harder for fans to get tickets? We'll see how it plays out. It's an experiment and I'm interested to see if the chatter among fans ends up being positive after tickets go on sale or if people buy a lot of merch and still get screwed over. In other words, it's still to be proven whether or not this strategy will give die-hards better opportunities than the standard Ticketmaster model. But it sure looks like it will make it harder for scalpers, unless they want six copies of Reputation and a Taylor Swift sweatshirt. I'd imagine those things are tougher to flip for 10x their value.

I think it's hilarious that you dismiss the "you're not being forced to buy X and Y" argument as "old" and "lazy" and then in the very next paragraph you still use the phrase "forcing people to buy shit." If it's a lazy argument, then don't fall into the trap of arguing against it. There is no force here. There is no coercion or aggression. It's an opportunity that fans can choose to take or not take, depending on what is worth it to them. It's no different than charging more for tickets. It's not worth it to me to jump through these hoops to see her, because I don't like the single. It's definitely worth it for some fans who love her a lot more than I do.

It's true that some people are going to be unable to go to these shows. That would be true anyway. Either the artist makes it harder to buy tickets or the market does. Affordable tickets are a good idea in theory, but they rarely work in practice because demand is too high. It's simple economics that, when demand outstrips supply so drastically, you increase barriers to entry. Artists have been looking for ways to do that, and Taylor's model is not really revolutionary there. What's genius about it is that she gives her album sales a boost in the process, perhaps giving herself a chance at an industry record. Cynical marketing ploy or not, that's a smart commercial move.

 

An artist who has become wealthy should still be able to make more money on their art. The money making tactic is either a good or bad tactic, the financial status of the artist using the tactic is entirely irrelevant.

 

This thread:

 

It's strange that in this very thread multiple (popular) male rock artists were noted as having done this exact thing over the past year and it was passed over in order to keep shitting on Taylor Swift specifically.

 

I feel bad that I'm not even surprised at this.

 

For what it's worth, there are already fans on tumblr organizing merch giveaways to take advantage of this- so fans who can't afford merch get merch, some girl gets an extra point for a code. People are offering to share codes for different dates. Pretty similar to what happened when Twenty One Pilots did their code thing for the Tour de Columbus. I think what's being missed here is that Taylor has the kind of fan base that is going to buy all of this shit anyway, and they're already finding ways to try and make it work for people who can't.

 

Interesting solution. I worry it keeps fans with less disposable income from being able to see an artist they like, but scalpers are already making that a reality.

 

The concept has been around forever. It's nothing new or special, her and her team just realized she's actually big enough to be able to do it within this field risk free. I doubt it will become the norm - maybe a handful of big artists will adopt it but still, you'll all be able to see most shows the same way as you do now. This is just - literally- the price you pay for seeing an artist with, what, 100 million + fans?

 

Would you mind sharing a link or two to the Tumblr accounts you're talking about? I'm working on an article about this and couldn't find anything from a cursory Google search.

 

I just saw it scrolling through her tag earlier today, i can't remember the username but I'll see if I can find it again!

 

Thanks! If you can't find it, I'll just look around a little more.

 

Took me a hundred years but I found it again

r e p u t a t i o n

 

You rock! Thanks for finding it.

 

This thread inspired me to write an article about the ticket strategy.

Look At What You Made Me Buy - Behind the Setlist

 

Very cool article. Well done! Thx for sharing.

 

Thanks for reading!