Taylor Swift’s latest album, Reputation, returned to #1 on the Billboard charts over the holidays. I’m sure that made her happy – she probably loves that she’s the #1 artist leaving 2017 and entering 2018. I don’t know what to expect from Swifty in 2018, but I would imagine it will involve lots of touring, very few interviews, perhaps one breakup and making a sh-tload of money. Same as every year! As for the Reputation Tour, fans are already pretty angry about the ticket prices, and Ticketmaster confirms that none of the dates has sold out yet, which is unusual for Taylor’s tours.
What is Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” worth? Not the jacked-up prices she’s charging for concert tickets. That’s the verdict from ticked-off fans, who are balking at buying seats for the 28-year-old pop star’s tour to promote her new “Reputation” album, citing stratospheric markups and greedy sales gimmicks. “I paid $150 for my ticket with amazing seats for the 1989 tour. Now for the same seats I have to pay about $500,” Twitter user “swiftieloves” recently griped.
A look at Ticketmaster’s interactive seat charts confirms that Swift’s schedule of 33 dates for the North American “Reputation” tour has yet to produce a single sellout, from its May 8 launch in Phoenix to its Oct. 6 finale in Arlington, Texas. That’s despite seats being available to the general public since Swift’s birthday on Dec. 13. By comparison, all the dates on Swift’s “1989” tour in 2015 “sold out within minutes,” according to concertsandsports.com.
“Sales so far have been a mega disappointment,” one music industry insider told The Post. “There are hundreds if not thousands of tickets left for every show.”
The stumble out of the gate is especially embarrassing given that the “Reputation” album sold more than 1 million copies within four days of its Nov. 10 release. On top of high prices, some prospective buyers are getting irked by Ticketmaster’s “Verified Fan” program, which required participants to register weeks before tickets went on presale, proving they were bona fide fans and not bots looking to buy tickets for scalpers. Ticketmaster, which has used Verified Fan for U2 concerts, “Hamilton,” “Springsteen on Broadway” and other big shows, told The Post the program tries to “provide fans with the most reliable access to tickets and combat bad actors that use bots that subvert that process.”
But Verified Fan — which got rebranded to “Taylor Swift Tix” for the tour — has added a controversial feature called “boosts” that promises fans a chance to “improve [their] position in line to purchase tickets.” Some boosts were innocuous, such as joining Swift’s official mailing list. But others cost money, such as pre-ordering the “Reputation” album, shelling out $50 for a T-shirt or purchasing the $60 snake ring that Swift wore in her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video.
“To get ‘further in line’ to buy Taylor Swift tickets she wants you [to] buy merch from her … this greedy snake,” Twitter user “Q_Taryntino” fumed. Music blogger Bob Lefsetz called Taylor Swift Tix “a tone-deaf scam” that amounts to “upselling with a theoretical benefit” rather than a guarantee of better seats. Indeed, some fans who bought into the “Reputation” tour’s presale between Dec. 5 and Dec. 8 got nasty surprises when tickets opened up to the general public five days later.
“I wasted my time buying with the presale code as the tickets available to the public were much better,” Twitter user “paigelizabethh” wrote. “Any particular reason that #Reputation tickets in the 100s section during presale last week were $446 APIECE and now they’re $267????” asked “bigbiiisch.”
Ticketmaster touted Taylor Swift Tix as “an unparalleled success,” saying it delivered “the biggest registration we’ve ever had.” By charging higher prices and blocking out scalpers, Swift and her tour promoter Louis Messina could fatten their coffers by as much as $1.5 million per show, according to an estimate in Billboard. That sounds like a shrewd business strategy, but Swift still has a lot of tickets to sell to make that upside. In the meantime, the “Swifties” are getting restless.
“Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour tickets sold out in only a couple of hours,” one disaffected fan, “alexiam77,” tweeted. “Today, you can *still* get really well-placed Reputation floor seats. If that doesn’t tell you your tickets are too expensive, idk what will.”
How much of this is Taylor’s fault specifically? I don’t know. I think Taylor has great business sense and marketing sense, and she’s got a great team of people around her, helping her rake in all of that $$$. But… Taylor and her team got really greedy on this one, and they’re alienating their base of fans. No amount of “private listening sessions” will change that. This looks like what she is: manipulative and shrewd. Which is fine, except that she wants her image to be naive, sympathetic, forever-victim and humble.
Also: Madame Snake actually used snakes on her Christmas card, I sh-t you not.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Taylor is NOT good live. (For the record, neither is Katy Perry.)
And $500 for concert tickets is obscene. I MIGHT pay $500 to see Jeff Buckley live in concert but he had one of the greatest voices of all time and is also (v sadly) dead.
Seriously. Is she forgetting the bulk of her fans are school-aged (including college)? Sincerely doubt the majority of them can justify those ticket prices. Hell, I’m in my 30s and make great money and I’d NEVER pay that much for any concert, regardless of the artist. For $500 I can fly round trip to Europe, which is way more worth my money than two or three hours of entertainment.
I think TS jumped the shark and has totally forgotten who her audience is. It’s so much better for an artist to do smaller sold out shows than huge half empty arenas. She overplayed her hand.
This is entirely the point. I have tweens and wouldn’t spend that, especially if it wasn’t an artist that interested me. I’m paying a decent amount to take little Fanty to see Pink, but that’s only because I want to see her show.
@teafanty I have always heard that the standard for pricing on tickets and events is STILL the “family of four” model. That is, you have to imagine one person paying for multiple tickets. Few parents are going to spend $2000 on TS concert tickets. I can’t believe she thought this was a good idea.
Ticket prices in general are obscene nowadays. Have you seen what other acts are charging? U2 came to town and it was $250 a ticket for crappy upper level.
I went to the 4:44 tour earlier this year, and we were fortunate enough to get really incredible, close up seats for $200. $500 is absurd, especially for an artist with fans who are primarily girl in their teens and 20s. I’m in my 30s and wouldn’t pay $500 to see anyone.
Also, she has to let this snake thing go. She just can’t help herself, can she?
I go to a lot of concerts and the most I’ve paid for one ticket was around $150 for Stevie Wonder, and it was 7th row. Well worth it (one of my favorite concerts ever out of hundreds. He’s amazing). Tickets for a music festival are in the hundreds but that’s for multiple acts over the course of days. I’d never pay $500 for one ticket! Even when Prince was in my town 3 or 4 years ago tickets were $300, and even though I regret it now I didn’t pay that. I don’t know who she thinks she is charging those prices. Get over yourself Swifty.
@annabelle bronstein
Remember her duet years ago with Stevie Nicks (at the Grammys, I think?)? Maybe it was nerves, but damn, she sounded horrible! And if I remember correctly, her guitar playing was also off?
The 2014 VMAs was when I realized how bad she is. Worst part: toss up, but her backup dancers visibly holding themselves back so as not to provide too stark a contrast might be the worst part. And the vocals: yikes! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8q_QuI8fvdk
That is still the Worst. Thing. Ever. Poor Stevie.
Karma, man. Greed, deceit and ill intentions will catch up with you every time.
Watching this 🐍 implode is more fun than should be allowed. 😈
Oof. Britney Spears she is not (and at least Brit has the good sense to lip sync) 😉
$500 for concert tickets is ridiculous. I think the most I have ever paid to see any band was in the $100 range. Beyond that, it just really isn’t worth it unless some legendary dead people came back to life and went on tour. I racked my brains to think if I would pay remotely in the neighborhood of $500 to see any currently living band/singer, and the only one I could imagine forking that over for would be Led Zeppelin if the remaining members ever did a reunion tour.
I paid $180 to see the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels concert in ’89. To this day that is the most I have paid for a ticket. (Tom Petty is still the best concert I’ve ever seen)
My mom and I paid $225 to see Cher in Vegas. It was worth every penny. But $500 for TS? Hard no.
The best concert I’ve ever been to was a $20 ticket to see Ray LaMontagne in a tiny theater in the middle of nowhere. The corporatisation of music is sad.
Ha ha. I hope it’s a dismal flop. She’s gotten far too big for her britches. Those prices are ridiculous. Just pull her up on YouTube and expand the screen. That’s good enough and your wallet will be full of money.
If I’m paying $500 dollars for a concert ticket, it had better come with a free college degree and a kitten.
Most shockingly, T Swift grossly overestimated her worth. Her juvinelle lyrics might sound good through headphones but chica can’t sing ‘em live. Thank god for auto tune microphones, amirite??
LOL..at your first comment.
I’m surprised people are still buying CD’s. I can hear all her songs on YouTube or other outlets if I wanted too. And no, I don’t listen to a lot of Swift. Her song writing is horrible and she can’t sing. There are a couple of her songs I do listen to but it’s the older stuff. The last two albums were horrific.
If I like a band or a singer so much, I always buy their Vinyls (for my collection) and their cds for my car because my car doesn’t have the mp3 or Bluetooth connection for music through my phone and it doesn’t have a jack for those phone to car wire connection. I gotta like atleast 4-5 songs from a band/singer to convince me to purchase their album. If I like that much songs from them, chances are I will like the entire album. So yeah, some people still buy cds. Lol.
Her prices rival that of Hamilton. And that’s a cast that can sing AND dance at the same time. Taylor can’t dance and she is not great live either.
Maybe her fans will see what a snake she is to everyone else. She doesn’t care (even if she pretends) she wants your money.
Yeah, my boyfriend and I paid less to see “Hamilton”. Granted, we’re in Chicago, so Lin Manuel wasn’t there, but, seriously. Great show. Way less what what this snake is asking. Not worth it in the least. And, to be totally fair, I really liked 1989, so I’m a Swifty apologist. This looks so tacky on her part.
I liked 1989 too. I’m not a swifty apologist because i know way too much about her snake ways that goes a long way back.
I saw the original cast for less than $200 on broadway. I would never pay more than that for a single artist
I spent A LOT to see Hamilton with the original cast, then I saw it this past May and I’m going to see it again this May. All on Broadway, too, since that is what is “local” to me. I use to enter the lottery whenever I knew I could get there in time, but alas never won. It was 100% worth it though. I usually don’t regret theater tickets. I couldn’t see spending that much on not that great TS seats. Maybe really good up close seats if I was a huge fan (I’m not lol) but yeah, she is not exactly a good live act and it’s not like she has elaborate sets, costumes and dancers like Britney or Madonna.
Nicole I have to add I’m jealous you spent less than $200, I spent $250 but I had to take what I could get at the time. And that was without using a scalper or resale site. Totally worth it and the overpriced cocktails, too! I have 5 Hamilton cups we use at my house now!
Ticketmaster is destroying concerts.
Taylor is not of the hook here. She has got more than enough moeny and doesnt need to persuade her fans to spend such insane amounts of money to get “priority”. And they dont even have a guarantee then! No wonder they are pissed.
Yes, Ticketmaster is. For the past 10 years I’ve gone to anywhere from 50-100 live concerts per year (I’m a huge music fan and live in a city where the music scene is great, and I promote music on the side so I get a lot of free tickets). It’s so frustrating to have popular acts sell out in a minute or two and then there are immediately tickets on second party sites jacked way up. Equally frustrating when you go to a sold out show and scalpers out front are selling tickets for 4x or more the original price. Then you have Ticketmaster adding ridiculous ‘convenience fees’ that can be up to $25 per ticket! I can’t wait for them to go down.
As a side note, I’ve learned that if a show I want to go to sells out right away and there’s tons of tickets on secondary sites like StubHub to wait until the day of show. When those stupid scalpers can’t sell them all they drop way down in price.
This. It’s usually the scalpers who buys tons of tickets the day it goes on sale then re-sell them for 2-3x the original amount they paid for it! Big / popular acts sells out fast. All the good seats with affordable prices are gone a few hours after the pre-sale then you can see the prices go up. I wanted to go see Adele, Bruno Mars and Sam Smith (separately) but all of the ticket prices were too expensive (thanks to the scalpers). Even the nosebleed section cost almost $200. So it’s not just Taylor Swift. Some people are just smart enough to buy multiple tickets to a hot selling band / singer concert so they can re-sell them at a higher value and make profit. Which sucks for people who actually wants to buy the ticket because they actually want to go to the concert.
Manipulating people into buying expensive tickets = no talent greedy explotative human.
But I am sure that much like with the kartrashians, lots of people will say that she is a savvy businesswoman and should be praised for her marketing skills.
This is aking to cults exploiting people and taking their money but on a minor scale for the victims although in comparable scale of conning. Urghhhh.
Her most die-hard fan base IS a cult, sorrynotsorry
She is the Charles Manson of creativity.
With so many talented people out there…
I’ll show myself out.
Yes! I refer to my two teenage members as “Swiftologists.” Their fandom can run extreme at times which I find highly irritating. My older Swiftologist, while still loyal their leader, seems to be breaking away a bit — and appears to at least listen to some valid criticism of their leader. My younger one is still all in though.
“lots of people will say that she is a savvy businesswoman and should be praised for her marketing skills. ”
There is nothing more feminist than wealthy white women overcharing their young fans!!!
I generally hate this businessman/woman argument. They are not savvy or clever, they are just greedy. Getting to the top in capitalism isnt about smarts, its about ruthlessness. “We’ll just demand more money and make them buy merchandise” WoW, great business strategy, only a genius could have come up with that.
I agree with Shambles and QueenB. What she has is not a business, is a cult, and she simply manipulates its members.
Ugh, THANK YOU QueenB. I am so tired of this idea that to be taken seriously as an intelligent, competent human, women have to resort to the same craven, cruel, and self-serving methods men have used to destroy the world for thousands of years.
And now I will refrain from espousing the virtues of feminist economics on a Taylor Swift concert post on the internet 🙂
@ Chickadee
LOL I love your comment.
The most amount of money I ever spent on a concert ticket was $150 bucks to see Adele and the only reason I did was because I thought there was a good chance I might not have the opportunity to see her again if she decided to stop touring again (which she did). Taylor Swift is never going to stop touring because she is addicted to the attention and adulation, so blowing $500 bucks on a ticket to her show is incredibly stupid.
But I feel like many Swift fans are like 45 voters in that they knew that she was shady despite all her protestations to the contrary, but they supported her anyway because they didn’t think the shadiness would affect THEM. And there will always be a hardcore kernel of supporters who will always defend what she does.
I once spent $1000/ticket to see Radiohead for their In Rainbows tour. Unfortunately, the tickets were priced so highly because of scalpers -a problem for which I’m not sure anyone has a permanent fix. I went with my younger sister and we stood ~4ft away from Johnny Greenwood during the show. I was a young 17 year old waiter at the time and spent all my savings on that show. What I feel now about it doesn’t even resemble regret. THIS is not THAT.
I can’t hate on that – I love Radiohead and being that close would be amazing.
It was 🙂 I’ve seen them a few times after that tour, never paid that much again, because let’s face it, I became a grown up and don’t have the cash to burn. But no other experience has even come close.
My “most expensive tickets ever” were also for Radiohead (at Red Rocks in Colorado). Best concert I’ve ever been to, so it was totally worth it!
AH! @Tiffany, that Red Rocks venue is beautiful, that must have amazing.
Well it was that expensive because you bought them from scalpers (not judging, I might do the same if I didn’t manage to get tix the legit way). RH really try to reduce the numbers of tix sold to scalpers and keep their ticket prices within an reasonable range, they’d never sell them for $500/$1000. They’ve probably been some of my most expensive tix too though, mostly because there hasn’t been a tour I didn’t go to since Kid A.
My biggest regret from not getting a ticket? Leonard Cohen at la Place des Arts in Montreal circa 2009 (when he started to tour again due to bankruptcy). I was in grad school and the cheapest tickets were around $150 while my monthly stipend was $1000… I chose to be able to do grocery instead of going, thinking I’d be able to see him another time and I never did.
Beatrix, it was amazing. Hearing “Fake Plastic Trees” with the mountain air blowing through my hair brought tears to my eyes.
@Tiffany: Imagining that nearly brings tears to mine. What a memory to treasure.
Thank you! It really was magical. I had tickets for the 16th row, but someone asked if we’d switch seats to the 12th row because they wanted to sit by their friends in our row. So we moved up and further center. Then during the show, Thom Yorke came to the edge of the stage and held his arms out to the audience and said “thank you”. I think the entire venue was having an emotional moment because the music and the venue went so beautifully together.
@Beatrix I still can’t believe how lucky I was, but I saw Radiohead 3rd row on the King of Limbs tour (it was my first and only time seeing them). Somehow my husband had snagged pit seating for like $100 per ticket in the presale, and it wasn’t very crowded in the pit so we got really close. Super amazing experience!
@Tiffany I live in Denver and get to go to Red Rocks a lot – I went to 13 shows there last summer! It’s my favorite venue, and I’ve seen concerts all over the country. I’m glad you got to see Radiohead there 🙂 I love the way you describe it!
Dang, nb! You are so lucky! Red Rocks is the best venue I’ve ever been to.
Aw, so jealous (despite the high price!). Radiohead is my favourite band and In Rainbows my favourite album. I’m going to see them in São Paulo (Brazil) in April this year, but if I put together the concert + plane tickets it won’t add up to 500 dollars. I can’t imagine how insane these kids’ parents must be to give away 500 bucks for a freakin TAYLOR SWIFT concert.
This actually reminds me of Kylie Jenner and her $360 makeup brush set. The money grab of these two examples is too transparent.
Taylor swift is not the only one making business decisions. All those people behind the scenes are the ones driving the ticket prices up and Taylor is the one being called a heartless greedy money-hungry snake. It is not fair to her. Behind Taylor Swift are big wig executives making huge earnings projections at the expense of her fans and guess who gets the blame.
But how many times and for how many years are we supposed to give TS the benefit of the doubt? She’s almost 30 years old. She knows what kind of decisions her marketing team is making and probably has to sign off on all of them.
Please Adele put her foot down and said “card swipe entry to prevent scalpers and nothing over $150 for my concerts” and no one said boo to her. You’re telling me Taylor, a powerful woman in music, cannot do the same?
It’s interesting that her fans are always so quick to point out that Taylor is a savvy business woman but the moment she makes a business decision with negative repercussions, suddenly it’s her team’s fault. Many of her fans have this habit of infantalizing her to shield her from criticism.
Exactly @Coco. She’s apparently a marketing genius when things are going right. She does everything on her own, makes all the decisions! As soon as something negative happens, it’s her team! She doesn’t have a say in these business ideas!
When it comes to her fan, Taylor is in charge and running things until she gets called out. Then it’s not her fault because the people who are really running things are to blame and Taylor is just a powerless victim.
It is interesting and points to a larger pattern of the infantalization of white women across the board. When its good everything they are savvy and smart and better than everyone. When its wrong its a mistake, not their fault and they couldn’t have known better. Its abusurd
What Nicole said. She’s nearly 30 not some teenage ingenue. When her music was pulled off iTunes and Spotify it was presented as her decision.
She’s praised for her business sense, so she’ll take the flack for poor business decisions as well.
I’m not even a huge Adele fan, but my friend got tickets and it was $100 so I took her offer to buy one and go with her. Adele was enjoyable because of her banter between songs AND we sat next to a group of drag queens dressed like Adele. I just can’t see a TS concert being that fun. I’m kind of glad my oldest daughter doesn’t really like her. She wants to see Ed Sheeran, whom she loves for some reason, so I will begrudgingly go to that.
To be fair, part of the cost is the production elements that are a part of the show. I am sure Adele’s show was amazing, but she probably had way fewer of the costly elements than a pop show (no fire and insurance that comes with it, fewer back up dancers, moving set pieces, etc.).
Adele and Taylor are selling two very different experiences to different audiences.
Hell nah. I wanted to go Adele’s concert here in Midwest but the tickets have sold out a few hours after it went on sale then the prices went up at Ticketmaster and stubhub a few hours later. Almost $150 for the nosebleed area so I didn’t go.
Not true! I bought my tickets through her website (as a “fan” you could sign up with email for pre-sale and get a code). My tickets were $250 EACH at Staples Center in L.A. Not “great” seats either- you didn’t get to choose the seat, it was just sent to you. So, no… While she did try and cut back on Scalpers, and I do applaud her for that, her seats were NOT cheap.
***And yes, we paid willingly, and loved the concert! 😊
It’s her brand that’s selling here, though, so if she reaps the benefits, she has to own the missteps as well. At the end of the day, it’s a concert and not a necessity, but it does suck for her younger fans who probably don’t that kind of money lying around.
So is Taylor responsible for her song writing or is it also the team behind her? She is the one in charge, her name is on everything, she makes the most money from all those decision. Stop blaming “the team” behind an artist.
It’s obvious that it’s her who is behind this. I really don’t understand this mentality. I love her music, and think she can be good sometimes but like I’m not delusional enough to think she’s not just being greedy right now. She did the same thing with the Spotify sh!t a while back. She wasn’t getting the money she wanted so she let her fans suffer.
Apparently, 500 million dollars isn’t enough for Taylor Swift. She apparently needs to gauge her fans more.
You can like her music and understand her problems at the same time.
Saying Taylor has no/little say in prices is ridiculous. It’s her tour and has enough power to say what she wants. People may give advice but Taylor has the final authority. She thought she could get away with $500 tickets. She and her team failed to understand most of her fans have to ask their parents for the money.
I have to disagree here. If you’re the brand, the boss, the face of the business? It’s on you. The fish starts to smell from the head.
There is no living artist I would pay that much for. Freddie and Michael but that is not happening, of course.
Yeah, I’m wondering who has final say here? Taylor Swift Inc. includes maaaaaany more people than just her. She’s a huge brand and she herself may not actually make that many decisions. But given her obvious control freak nature, who knows? If I were her I’d be calling as many shots as possible. $500 tickets is outrageous, especially since the price of the previous tour was around $150. There has to be a better way to prevent scalpers and make money.
She’s ridiculous.
What makes it worse is she set up a system that encouraged fans to buy a ton of albums and merch to get a good spot in line for these overpriced tickets. She convinced her biggest fans they had to spend hundreds in order to have the chance to spend hundreds on tickets.
If her fans were adults I wouldn’t care, but it’s mostly tweens and young teens falling for this marketing trap.
In my city, it looks like the nosebleeds start at like $200 and anything with a decent view will be the $400 and up range, $500+ minimum if you’re anywhere near the stage. 1 ticket!!! That’s insane. That’s a weeklong trip to across the country or to Mexico. Who can afford this?
I don’t understand how she has the #1 album again. Her singles on iTunes are non existent. I never hear her stuff on radio. That stat feels really weird to me.
She also looks soooo different in these pictures, and I’m not even talking about the weight gain. Her face has changed, really plastic looking.
It’s obvious her fans inflated the album sales somehow, just given how little we’ve heard it on the radio. The songs are really bad, they’re overly auto-tuned and the ones she released as singles are the worst. She clearly did LWYMD to get Kanye, RFI cause it’s the starting point of the album and Gorgeous cause she’s too in love with Joe to see how sh!tty that song is. I don’t know why she thought LWYMD and Gorgeous were good singles to release? They are among the weakest parts of the album.
In terms of her appearance, I think it is just weight gain. Her face shifted a bit but that happens when you gain weight. I do think she gained weight due to that botched boob job, which made her look plastic AF. The doctor probably told her that in order to make herself seem more natural she needs to put on a few pounds. I remember when the pics came out of her in 2016 which was obviously right after her surgery and just how bad she looked then. She looks a lot better and healthier now to be honest.
I heard the fans were told to buy four copies to show that they were real fans, and to get a better chance to get good tickets for her concerts.
And so, many of her fans did just that.
Her fan should were told that they could buy up to 13 copies to increase their chances at good tix 🙄
@burnsie if that’s true, jesus christ. I feel bad for fans who buy into this sh!t. I’m happy that I can be a fan without being manipulated. I know so many young girls who will be manipulated by her antics though.
End Game is on the radio all the time, across a bunch of different stations.
Really? Cause I hardly hear it, it certainly isn’t like how Blank Space, Wildest Dreams, or Shake it off was. Those songs were played and still are played constantly. Going further back We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together, and I Knew You Were Trouble were played way more. However, Endgame is one of the better songs, maybe because Ed Sheeran is on it? But look at how little LWYMD, RFI and Gorgeous, were played. I think RFI was the only one I heard twice.
Don’t know what to tell you, it’s been all over for the last few weeks.
Hmm, I’ve never heard it. And it hasn’t even been officially released as a single as far as I know? Also, if it is a legit single or even receiving lots of play on radio, it isn’t sitting too high on iTunes or the Billboard chart.
And saying any of her new songs have been all over is grossly over-stating things. 1989 was all over. Multiple songs – she was dethroning herself every time a new single was released and then they would overlap for airplay. Reputation might be doing well with fans, but so far the general public hasn’t latched on.
@TaraT3, exactly! I’m a fan, I like her music, but it’s time to accept the fact that she is not doing well with this album despite the success. Which is why it seems fake to the general public. Her newest songs aren’t connecting, her rebranding as a “snake” (but still playing the victim) isn’t working. Most people don’t know what her songs are. Compare this to Red Era or 1989 Era, and you see that she isn’t as liked or admired as before. I mean Shake if Off was played so much I begin to hate the song. I can’t say the same about any of her other singles.
I was hoping that after 2016 she’d come be more apologetic, maybe she’d do some country. I’m still hoping she’ll realize this isn’t working, but it doesn’t seem like she wants to learn from how badly she fucked up.
I don’t think Taylor is “worse” than other celebs, but she refuses to take accountability for her actions and refuses to grow from her experiences. That’s gonna be her downfall.
She looks like her mom suddenly. Unsure why but this is the fastest face and body change I’ve ever seen in a young person. It’s fine but I don’t understand what happened. She looks nothing like herself.
Even as someone who doesn’t completely hate her, I think this is insane. Who can afford 500 dollars, let alone spend it on her? She must think really highly of herself if she thinks people would be willing to spend 500 dollars to see her. Reputation is a bad album overall, with only a few good songs. She can’t honestly expect people to want to see it in concert.
I was hoping that after 2016 she would take a good hard look at herself and decide how to change her image for the better, but this entire Reputation era just makes her look like a teenage mean girl. Here’s to hoping whatever she puts out after this will be better.
I believe her audience is mostly rich people or people who want to seem rich.
She probably realized she can make a lot of money by selling herself as a luxury item.
I disagree, her fanbase is young teens/young adult women. It’s not just “rich people” who listen to Taylor Swift. Most of these people don’t have money to buy a 500 dollar ticket, hence why there has been no sell out. 1989 sold out within minutes, and this one is about a month old and no sell outs?
Taylor yet again overplayed her hand. She just never learns.
“She must think really highly of herself if she thinks people would be willing to spend 500 dollars to see her.”
Is a matter of thinking “highly”? Or is it just a fact? People have paid $500 and much more for her tickets before. I wouldn’t, but many of those people exist.
It’s tricky to pinpoint her fan base. I’m a huge fan and she got big when I was in high school. I’m now 30 and I bought a ticket for $104 which is reasonable and affordable. Her album content is definitely alienating a younger fanbase as there is a lot of drinking, sex, cheating etc. All things an “older” fan such as myself can relate to. If she were still singing about princesses in castles, I probably wouldn’t still be a fan. Just my 2 cents! To each his own.
To be fair she hasn’t been singling about princesses in castles since Fearless. Speak Now was probably her last “teen” album. Red is a young adult album when you really look at what she is talking about, and 1989 is another more young adult album. Her fanbase is comprised of many late teens and young adults, none of which have 500 dollars for a ticket. Her tour isn’t selling out, which makes it obvious that her fans have inflated the sale of her album. The “Number 1 Selling Album” should also have a sold-out tour. The fact that it doesn’t speaks to how far Swift has fallen.
Actually it is it’s called market research her Court bass fans are teens and tweens. Nobody’s saying that there aren’t some are adults out there who are fans of her “music”.
I still think her biggest fan base is teens and tweens, but I saw a lot of women my age (34) and up post they were interested in her concert on fb. I’m not sure if it’s them or their young (like elementary age) daughters though. I love my kids, but I wouldn’t be paying hundreds or close to a grand for us to see Taylor Swift.
Guys don’t judge me!!! I’m not a crazy fan and I most the time don’t even comment on her posts. Several of my friends said I had to buy the album on iTunes. I did. 11 whole dollars, not much a commitment. It is great. Lol I can listen to it from front to back and enjoy every single song. I’m in my early 30’s, as are all the friends that recommended it. It’s ‘toddler friendly’ so I can listen to it anytime. That’s hard to do these days. That being said, I would die before I spent that kind of money on a concert ticket. So many fall flat in person and to pay that kind of money, no thanks never. I honestly never tried to get tickets over the years because they sell out in minutes and I was just like ‘oh well’. I’m shocked she would let this happen to her ticket prices. I remember Kid Rock got pissed at ticket master and threw a concert for like 25$ seats for every seat! He said you shouldn’t have to be wealthy to see a concert. We need more people with that attitude.
OMG had to to check it out myself. Her bad seats are 360$ and up. I’m talking major nose bleed. The ‘snake pit standing only’ are about a grand!!!! Wtf?! Also, there are ‘certified resale seats’ for almost 5,000$?!?!?!?!?!?!?! This should be illegal. My dad is in husband 60’s and is sad for my generation because he saw every concert known to man and spent next to nothing doing it. He thinks live music should be a part of a young adults life. Almost like a right of passage, but I can’t wait to tell him how much these insane tickets are!!!!!
Ticketmaster is spinning this hard trying to claim that upping the ticket prices to obscene levels is creating a far superior experience for the fans. Lol. This is nothing but gouging and I hope her fans are smart enough to see that. IMO she is beyond obnoxious and having to listen to her sing for even 10 seconds would be excruciating punishment. But that’s just me!
Concert tickets are insane in general nowadays. Everything charges a crazy premium and then Ticketmaster gives a ridiculous surcharge. Taylor is far from the only artist gouging their fans that want to see them live.
Ha, she must’ve paid Billboard to rewrite the article which said Katy Perry’s tour would make more money than hers.
I bought £11 tickets for mr Slowsnow, the kids and their partners to watch the amazing SYML sing in a church next to Kings Cross in London. He’s a fantastic singer from Seattle. It cost me £77. I feel the most privileged person in the world. We’ll get to stand next to him and enjoy his voice.
Stormzy tickets last year were about £30, and I’m convinced it was a moment in British poppolotical (pop+politics 😉 culture for a handful of peanuts compared to this no-talent’s prices.
Well this got me curious how much she was charging in my state and she’s not even coming anywhere near here. She’s always played at least 2 shows in my state, so I guess I find that surprising.
I checked in my city and they’re on par with normal concert tickets? They have a snake pit package where you get two tickets plus VIP for like $900 which doesn’t seem totally off. Nosebleeds are $71 and everything in between isn’t all that bad. I’m not discussing talent here but Taylor is on par with Beyoncé in stature and I remember Beyoncé tickets were insanely priced.
I was going to say something similar. This may sound outrageous, but it’s the typical pricing for concerts in my area too.
Yeah, I just checked Beyoncé at Coachella and the price range is 500$ to 1500$.
I know he’s not in the same league as Taylor, but I am a huge fan of Brett Dennen and he recently went out on tour, and none of the tickets were more than $30. Meanwhile my show was a super intimate acoustic set (less than 50 people in attendance) and I spent the entire show within 10 feet of him. I’ve been a fan for years and I couldn’t believe I got to have such an amazing experience and get to listen to songs that I loved so much performed live for less than it costs to fill up my tank with gas. It’s sad that due to Taylor’s greed or the greed of the people around her, her ride or die fans feel that they have to spend hundreds of dollars to get good tickets and prove their loyalty as fans. That is not a good way to keep fans on your side. It looks embarrassing that she can’t fill venues right now, but in the future her fans are gonna remember her greed and turn on her. Just wait.
Maybe it depends on the location? Even more strange!!!!!
My best friend went to see the 1989 concert and said she spent half the show monologuing. Who needs to pay $500 to hear her narcissistic thoughts? Hard pass.
I went to see Prince in 2004 in Raleigh NC. I got mid-range seating and paid $85! And $25 of that was parking and $11 of it was to pay for the copy of his Musicology CD that everyone received as they entered the venue. Prince was the kind of performer that people would be willing to spend a ton of money to see but he made sure to keep his prices reasonable.
Yeah. He had genuine major talent in many aspects of music.
I paid $150 for floor seats close to the stage in 2015; similar seats for Reputation were $300 so I said no thanks!
Her name should be Tiresome Swift.
Just checked the prices for the ATL shows out of curiosity…starting at $130ish for the “bad” seats. However the good seats were $500+! Saw one that was $1,714.50! And that’s for one ticket!!
The North American leg of the Reputation tour was 50/50 arenas and stadiums. This tour is exclusively stadiums. There’s a world of difference between trying to fill a 20,000 seat arena and a 60,000 seat football stadium or 40,000 seat baseball stadium. All those extra seats to fill does make her price structure a head-scratcher, but I wonder if sales will pick up after people are done paying for the holidays.
Those prices and the extra charges are insane. They are going to turn off a lot of her trusty fans, that’s for sure.
Take that money and go see 5 less known artists who could use the support!
I recently paid about $475 for two seats to see Hamilton here in Seattle. They are GREAT seats at a beautiful theater – and yes, that was painful to pony up for but I’m praying it’s worth it!
I actually like Taylor but I wouldn’t even pay $100 to see her in the front row.
I’m all for anything that deters the scalpers and their bots from scooping up tix, and I think her team saw how much her 1989 tickets were going for on the secondary market and vowed to make sure that money went into Taylor’s bank account next time around. Nothing wrong with that, but I think they miscalculated/got greedy. They assumed people would pay the same peak re-sale price that 1989 tickets were fetching. The new album just isn’t as widely popular as 1989 was.
I do also wonder how much of the pricing was based on fan feedback. Didn’t the people who got pre-sale access have to specify a price range when they registered? If they all went, “OMG, I’d pay any price, I’ll sell a kidney if I have to!!!” that could have really skewed the pricing. It’s easy to say you’ll pay $500 for a ticket in the abstract, until you actually have to put your money where your mouth is.
Only the super-super hardcore fans (which aren’t that many) are going to sell a kidney to see her. Lol. Most fans are disappointed they can’t afford to see Taylor. Most fans don’t like this markup.I don’t go to concerts due to my anxiety disorder (All those people freak me out) but I know people who went to 1989 and are now upset that they can’t attend Reputation. Taylor’s gonna alienate fans if she keeps doing things like this.
Unpopular opinion: I am ok with artists charging what people will pay. It’s their product, there is no reason they shouldn’t sell it using the same pricing strategy behind other goods and services. It costs a lot of money to run a tour, there are risks involved, it’s a time suck and it can be exhausting depending on schedule. It can be really profitable if done right, and I don’t fault people for making a profit.
What you are forgetting is that her core based fans are tweens and teens. Do you still think its ok to charge teens that? That’s why people are talking about the price and People aren’t paying it anyway.
I’m not forgetting that, I just don’t think it factors in. Do I think it is “OK” to charge teens that? Yes. I don’t see morality tied to the pricing of concert tickets. It isn’t a charity event, it’s her job, her product.
She shouldn’t be expected to give away her tickets because her demo skews younger. They should charge what people will pay. This same demographic has bought her tickets before, they will again. There are months before these shows, so they have plenty of time to sell more between now and then. They took a risk with the pricing, but I don’t think it is immoral of them to do so. It’s a business decision.
Would rather put food on my table for a month. Ugh. So very, very mediocre at best.
Over the holidays I heard several of her Christmas songs. I was surprised at how weak her voice sounded. I remember when my daughter played the Jessica Simpson Christmas album every morning, and that wasn’t great, but my daughter pointed out that Jessica at least sang on it and didn’t auto tune. I don’t know what was going on with Taylor’s Christmas album but I’d rather listen to Jessica’s.
Jessica’s voice is the real deal – always been very impressed w/her pipes!
The girl can’t sing to save her life… Why on earth would people pay that much to see her?? I can’t think of a single artist or band that I’d pay that much to see! Especially when you can watch fan videos of their shows on YouTube for free!
isn’t this what Jay Z is doing? They don’t need to sell out their shows if they can make the same money with half the ticket sales.
$500 for taylor swift? lol yeah right.
My sister just went to a Jay Z concert a month or two ago and she had good seats and paid nowhere $500. Designer money comes from their lower level labels, then their high end ones. Look at Mary Kate and Ashley got most of their money from their Kmart products then their high label brand. The same goes to the music industry.
I can’t wait for the day Karlie & Tay go public. Obviously if it ever happened (and they were still together then), it would have to be when they are way older and Tay’s fanbase has waned/grown up.
see: Ricky Martin
I don’t get how she can fill in stadiums.
Get a fav that’s worth that money Swifties, otherwise, stop complaining.
£500 for a single concert ticket is disgusting. I went to see one direction in 2015 and the ticket price was only about £70 which wasn’t bad considering it was the last tour they did. Taylor isn’t good enough to be worth forking out that amount of money for.
Isnt it the venue that controls prices?
No the artists or lable pay upfront and they get the money back from the tckets sells.
My younger sister is a super fan boost whatever you call it and her ticket was 175 tax and everything so not sure where they are getting 500 from.
We are getting $500 from the Ticketmaster website. Lol. Also, total back of the venue tickets are 180$ At the venue I was looking at for her concert.
I have never paid $175 for any concert and that includes Phish, Bob Dylan, Prince, Lou Reed, The Marriage of Figaro, all front row seats, since I tend to feel it’s not worth going unless it’s the front row. And Phil Lesh & Friends (an entire weekend festival) was $200. Taylor Swift, a comparative flash in the pan, is hardly worth that price. She’s trying to wring the most cash out of anyone who will pay before she bucks the industry for good. These pictures say it all as far as how over it she is.
It baffles me that someone would pay even $150 for a ticket to see her and I’m actually a pretty big fan of her music. Maybe I’m just really cheap but if I have to pay more than $50 to see you perform live, you’d better be Adele-level amazing. Taylor’s music is enjoyable but she doesn’t have that great a voice, especially live.
She has psycho smile and dead eyes.
My daughter wanted nothing more for Christmas than Taylor Swift tickets. The cheapest tix for her tour when she comes to Denver was $168 each. I just couldn’t afford that and couldn’t believe that was the price for the cheapest seats.
If David Bowie came back from the dead for a one-night show, I would pay $500 with a smile.
For a dubiously talented attention whore with a victim complex? $5 and that’s only if I had nothing better to do that night.
And so begins the demise of the great Swifty empire, as she succumbs to the disease that has taken so many: Over-inflated ego syndrome with side of terminal entitlement.