Live Nation is celebrating its 10th annual Live Nation Concert Week, which runs from today until Tuesday, May 14. The special week offers a nearly unheard of treat for music fans: $25 concert tickets. The event has now expanded to 20 countries across North America, Australia, Asia, Europe, the UK and the Middle East.
Over 5,000 events by 900 artists are eligible for this incredible discount. However, many shows sold out almost immediately. The quick evaporation of tickets was an expected hurdle, but fans grew upset when Ticketmaster's website failed to load entirely.
Disappointed attempted-concertgoers flocked to X to express their dismay over Ticketmaster and Live Nation's flailing platforms. Many reported being unable to even log onto Ticketmaster at all. The website returned "Page Not Found" messages as well as error codes.
"I've been on Ticketmaster since 10am for the $25 Live Nation sale - the website crashed for 30 minutes straight, then put me in the slowest queue of all time. You're seriously telling me they can have a monopoly over the entire concert industry and still not use servers that work," posted X user @AllieKay_5.
Multiple users joked that the government should be banning Ticketmaster rather than TikTok. The popular video sharing app must be sold by its parent company, ByteDance, within nine months or face being banned in the United States.
Wednesday's flop isn't Ticketmaster's first time disappointing eager music enthusiasts. The website infamously crashed when tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour went on sale. Swifties were either stuck in online queues for several hours only to be unable to buy a ticket when finally they reached the end of the digital waiting line. For many, the platform crashed entirely.
Ticketmaster responded to the Eras Tour debacle, claiming that the "staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn't have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests - 4x our previous peak."
The controversy surrounding the Eras Tour led to a congressional hearing as well as several lawsuits from distraught Swift fans.
While writing of today's Ticketmaster flop, one X user referenced the failure of Swift's tickets sale, "can't believe ticketmaster and live nation really thought they could handle having so many people buying tickets for so many artists when they cant even handle a single artist."
"Hey @LiveNation @Ticketmaster, word of advice. If you wanna keep your image of "yucky monopolistic corporation" alive, you should probably make sure your f--king servers work so you can scam people," quipped another disappointed attempted-buyer.
Hey @LiveNation @Ticketmaster, word of advice. If you wanna keep your image of "yucky monopolistic corporation" alive, you should probably make sure your fucking servers work so you can scam people. pic.twitter.com/LQXY889fEE
— 🦊✨Sherlock Despacito✨🦊 (@thedevon27) May 8, 2024
At the moment, it appears that Ticketmaster's website has stabilized, but only after leaving music fans empty-handed.
Live Nation Entertainment has come under fire from more than just frustrated fans on the internet. The industry giant will soon face a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that Live Nation has violated antitrust laws.
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