Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS World Tour has sparked uproar online, with disgruntled fans hitting out at Ticketmaster on social media.
Rodrigo announced the upcoming tour on Instagram in September in support of her Grammy-nominated second album, GUTS. Fans rushed to register for the opportunity to buy tickets for the tour, which will see the 20-year-old singer performing at 77 locations across Europe and North America throughout 2024.
Ticketmaster described the demand for tickets as massive upon release, with significantly more people registering for them than were available. Newsweek has reached out to Ticketmaster and Olivia Rodrigo for comment via email.
Nevertheless, Rodrigo fans on X, formerly Twitter, said they have received an email from the company on Thursday, notifying them of tickets ready to buy. However, the tickets were reportedly marked as "sold out" in just one minute, leaving fans empty-handed.
"Ticketmaster emailed me when i was sleeping that they released olivia rodrigo tickets for dallas," wrote user Sherran. "Tell me why i decide to log on anyways and there's an alert saying they sold out at basically 2:01 and i got the email at 2:02."
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Dianeli shared a similar story, writing: "The way Ticketmaster got my hopes up & sent an email about available Olivia rodrigo tickets for there to be NONE."
User @miniyyih posted that Ticketmaster made her wait in the digital queue, despite the tickets seeming to sell out almost immediately, as did fellow user Dylan Kanner. "Getting an email about additional Olivia Rodrigo tickets and sitting in the queue for nothing to be left," they wrote.
"Glad I wasn't the only one that got scammed by this whole Olivia Rodrigo Ticketmaster fiasco," commented @_clarrissamae. "I hopped in the queue and by the time I got in there were... no more tickets??"
After the announcement from Rodrigo on September 13, fans had four days to register to buy tickets through Ticketmaster or American Express, with the latter only available to members. However, Ticketmaster posted a statement informing fans that there was considerably more demand for tickets than available to purchase.
A week later, the "Vampire" singer said that 18 dates had been added to the tour, a total of 77 stops between February and August 2024.
Still, many fans trying to register for tickets said they were waitlisted, although Ticketmaster has not released figures on the number of people waiting.
Fans who were lucky enough to register were still not guaranteed tickets. Registration gave people just the opportunity to purchase, with tickets on a 'first come, first served' basis.
GUTS tickets are available on resale and exchange sites, but the costs are too high for the majority of Rodrigo fans.
Resale company StubHub has tickets on offer for $174 and above, while similar site Vivid Seats is selling tickets for $151 plus. Ticket platform SeatGeek also has tickets for exchange or sale, beginning at $115.
However, prices are continuing to rise, with some sellers wanting upwards of $500 for tickets.
"Got off the waitlist for olivia rodrigo but i simply can't justify these ticket prices," wrote X user Jann.
"I don't think I can justify $600 FACE VALUE for a lower bowl Olivia Rodrigo ticket," posted Sonya.
This isn't the first time that Ticketmaster has come under fire due to reported ticketing issues. Taylor Swift fans were left disappointed in November 2022 after demand for the singer's Eras Tour caused the Ticketmaster website to crash.
Prospective buyers said they spent hours waiting in virtual queues during the presale release, followed by Ticketmaster suspending the tour's general sale a few days later.
The company faced a lawsuit from Swifties, who accused Ticketmaster and its parent corporation, Live Nation Entertainment, of cornering the market and pricing fans out of seeing their favorite artists.
"Ticketmaster is a monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public," the lawsuit read, with fans asking for $2,500 each.
The lawsuit led to a federal probe, with multiple members of Congress lambasting the company.
In November, Rolling Stone uncovered an inquiry launched in spring 2023 that "hadn't been publicly reported prior to the subpoena filing," with Ticketmaster facing "broader regulatory scrutiny over potential antitrust concerns."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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