In this day and age, it takes persistence, patience, and presale codes to secure concert tickets for your favorite artists. As the popularity of purchasing physical concert tickets dies out almost completely, websites like “Ticketmaster” have skyrocketed in use. For most musical A-List artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo, these tickets will sell out completely online within the hour leaving it all up to your place in the “queue”. As an avid concert goer here’s my understanding and guide to winning the Ticketmaster war. 

What is Ticketmaster?

Ticketmaster is an online event ticket-distributing website where music artists can release their tickets at a specific time on a specific date to their fans from any place in the world, leaving it all up to their place in the queue and availability. Artists can also entice their fans to sign up for different presale codes which allows them early access to the tickets. Additionally, a feature accessible to music artists is dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing is based on the rate at which tickets are being sold, meaning that prices are constantly changing while tickets are being sold based on their popularity. Ultimately maximizing the profits for both the app and the artist.

While Ticketmaster is known for its accessibility it is also known for the frustration that comes from users for the amount of struggle that comes with trying to buy tickets. In 2023, when Taylor Swift released her “Eras Tour” many fans were outraged with Ticketmaster crashing and kicking them out of the queue subsequently losing their chance at tickets. Not only that but in 2024 according to justice.gov the U.S. Justice Department sued Ticketmaster for the monopolization of markets in the live entertainment industry in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Along with that, there are a couple of separate lawsuits filed against them for the lack of transparency regarding fees. Overall people’s experience with Ticketmaster is hit or miss. 

How to secure tickets:

Although it is a bit of a hassle to acquire concert tickets, here is my best advice to optimize your chances of getting them at a good price. 

• Stay Informed

The most important thing to do when you are eyeing concert tickets is to stay informed.   Make sure that you have an outlet to get news on upcoming presales, ticket drops, and announcements regarding said artist. Tickets go fast and it is important to be ahead of the game and save up for tickets beforehand. 

• Sign up for Presale Codes

Depending on the artist, there tends to be one way or another to sign up for a unique code that unlocks ticket sales early. This is the best way to ensure you get a ticket, especially if the artist has tendencies to sell out venues. 

• Join the Queue 10-30 Minutes Early

Ticketmaster has a waiting room that you can join up to 30 minutes before tickets go on sale, being there early allows you to have time to prepare and get situated before you have to wait in line. 

• Check out the Venue Beforehand

Ticketmaster allows you to look at the venue and all possible seating options beforehand, you can choose which seats you’re going to snag which smooths out the hectic process when you finally get into the spot to buy tickets. 

• Use Multiple Accounts

Grab your friends or family members or even an extra electronic device you own and use multiple accounts. This is your chance to get higher in the queue on different devices, therefore you have multiple different chances. 

Hopefully you found this article useful, maybe it helped you secure tickets to your next concert or event!