Who remembers getting concert tickets at the box office? Probably no one in the last five years. For people who are not avid concert goers, the ticket buying process can be difficult to understand. To make matters worse the guide to buying tickets varies by artists.
For larger artists like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, the first step to tickets is signing up to be a verified fan and hoping that you receive a code. That code is how you unlock presale tickets. After the presale there is a general sale where people without codes are able to attempt to purchase tickets.
You also can’t forget the sale before the presale for exclusive credit card holders. American Express host presales for artists like Shania Twain and Harry Styles. For the upcoming and highly anticipated Taylor Swift “The Era’s Tour,” she has partnered with Capital One for a presale.
The presales on Ticketmaster also take place long before the show. There are no chances of getting tickets unless it is at these sales. Shows are sold out for months in advance. Some concerts that are highly anticipated are in no means going to be available last minute.
Ticketmaster is the only reliable company to purchase tickets from. Resale ticket vendors like SeatGeek and StubHub cannot be trusted. There are so many horror stories of fans being denied at the doors of venues because of fake tickets.
The verified fan process was created in order to keep tickets from getting in the hands of scalpers. When tickets are being resold the prices skyrocket. When Harry Styles had a six night residency at the United Center in Chicago, tickets that were 199 dollars were being sold for thousands of dollars.
Smaller artists who perform at smaller venues do have more of a traditional ticket buying process. Venues sell tickets at the door and through their own websites. The process is much easier without all the presales.
Even though presales are created to benefit it adds so many hurdles. The days of getting surprise concert tickets are no more. To ensure you have a chance at tickets make sure that you have a Ticketmaster account and good luck.