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In a headache-inducing weekend for concertgoers, fans across the US couldn’t access or transfer tickets due to a systemwide Ticketmaster outage. As a result, some would-be attendees found themselves outside venues with tickets they had paid for.
On Friday night, fans across the country reported they couldn’t access or transfer tickets because of an apparent systemwide Ticketmaster outage. The issue left some fans stuck outside venues, unable to use the tickets they had purchased beforehand.
While Ticketmaster did not issue a public incident announcement on Friday, its verified Ticketmaster Fan Support account began responding directly to affected customers on the former Twitter. On Saturday, the company’s support account was providing more specific information about the issue.
Ticketmaster instructed customers whose transfers had not yet arrived and who had events on Saturday to visit the venue’s box office with their confirmation information, assuring them that the box office would have a record of the transfer.
But the issue extended beyond tickets purchased through Ticketmaster. Users on Reddit documenting the dilemma included those who said purchases originating through other marketplaces that still depended on Ticketmaster’s transfer infrastructure could also not be completed. That fact illustrates a major competition issue amid the ongoing fallout from the antitrust trial and settlement process against Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
“Fans were standing outside venues holding tickets they paid for and couldn’t use. This is the unfortunate but clear consequence of allowing one company’s unprecedented control over live event ticketing. When Ticketmaster goes down, fans, venues, artists, and the small businesses that serve them all go down with it,” said Geoff Vetter, Spokesperson for the Coalition for Ticket Fairness (CTF), in a statement to Digital Music News.
“Ticketmaster has spent years solidifying control, and this is the result. When a fan’s ticket only works if Ticketmaster’s system is working, they don’t really own their ticket,” Vetter continued. “Fans deserve real competition, real choice, and the freedom to use and transfer their tickets on the platform they choose. No industry should accept a single point of failure this big.”
The CTF represents fans and small businesses who believe that fans should have a say in buying, using, or reselling tickets. The coalition exists to advocate for fan choice and increased competition in the live event ticketing space.
Meanwhile, Ticketmaster has not publicly disclosed when the incident began, how many events or ticket transfers were affected, or whether the problem involved a broader system issue. Perhaps most importantly, it’s unknown how many customers ultimately missed an event because tickets they paid for did not arrive.