Taylor Swift Says Fans Not Being Able to Get Tickets to Her Concerts Is "Excruciating"

Taylor Swift's fans are not happy right now. A combination of sky-high ticket prices for her Eras Tour, people going through impossibly long waits to even get to those astronomical prices, and technical errors credited to Ticketmaster have all made for a less-than-stellar experience for anyone wanting to get access to tickets. On Friday morning, Swift issued a statement on the matter addressing all the anger that's been circulating in her fan base, saying that she never wanted to put her fans in a position that was so far out of her control, and adding that it was "excruciating" for her to see it all unfold.

Ticket sales that were supposed to go live today were actually canceled, according to the BBC, adding another layer of frustration for fans. Ticketmaster blamed "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory." So far, more than 2 million tickets have already been sold to select pre-sale groups.

“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” Swift shared on her Instagram Story. “It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”

“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” her message continued. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

She finished her note with a promise that everyone involved is working to "figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.”

Ticketmaster hasn't announced what will happen for the general public when the tickets become available for purchase.

“To those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to get together and sing these songs,” Swift added in her note.

“It’s a function of Taylor Swift. The site was supposed to open up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans,” Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, the Ticketmaster's largest shareholder, told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. “We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots, which are not supposed to be there.” He added that there was enough demand for Swift tickets that fans "could have filled 900 stadiums." 

The Eras Tour is set to kick off in March 2023 with the first show in Glendale, Arizona.