How to Watch the Senate Hearing About Tayler Swift's Ticketmaster Pre-Sale Debacle, Which Takes Place This Week
Taylor Swift fans will be able to follow along as the Senate Judiciary Committee has a hearing about Ticketmaster this week.
The hearing, which will be headed by Senator Dick Durbin, takes place on Tuesday (January 24) at 10am ET. The “Anti-Hero” singer’s tour presale caused a public backlash, which attracted the attention of the U.S. government.
If you need a refresher on all the Ticketmaster drama that resulted from Taylor‘s Eras Tour presale, we put together a helpful timeline.
As the hearing looms closer, more details are emerging, including how to follow along with it from home.
Read more about the upcoming Senate hearing…
According to Variety, the Senate hearing will feature a variety of witnesses. That includes Joe Berchtold, the President and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment. There will also be representation from SeatGeek, JAM Productions and the American Antitrust Institute. If you weren’t aware, Live Nation owns Ticketmaster.
Joe hinted on who should be taking the blame for the presale difficulties: scalpers. He shared his statement with Billboard.
“We knew bots would attack [Swift’s] onsale, and planned accordingly,” he shared. “We were then hit with three times the amount of bot traffic than we had ever experienced, and for the first time in 400 Verified Fan onsales they came after our Verified Fan access code servers. While the bots failed to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets, the attack required us to slow down and even pause our sales. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience that we deeply regret.”
He continued, apologizing to fans who were hurt by the sale and urging to make changes in the industry to make scalping events harder.
Joe also has the support of musician Garth Brooks.
Keep up with the Senate hearing – called That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment – on Tuesday here.
Did you know that Taylor already delivered her first performance of her Midnights hit “Anti-Hero?” Find out where!