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Taylor Swift tour sales crash Ticketmaster, leaving fans 'heartbroken,' 'angry'

Amid "historically unprecedented demand" for tickets, Taylor Swift fans are voicing concerns about their chances to see the pop superstar in action.

Ticketmaster's pre-sale tickets for "The Eras Tour" opened to fans with registered codes at 10 a.m. local time for venue location on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

But, as Swift fans shared on social media, things didn't go as planned. People raised various issues that blocked them from obtaining tickets.

One user was "beyond heartbroken" after Ticketmaster was "unable to process" her payment. Another was "knocked out " of the queue and had to go to the beginning. According to one user , "customer service wasn't available."

"I wasted an hour and a half of my life only to be told my code didn’t work. This is ridiculous," another user wrote .

These problems had a cascading effect for some users, who shifted their schedules to be available for the presale. “i have work at 3:30 today. i already moved my shift so i could be able to do the presale, and now i’m not going to be able to get tickets. i’m so incredibly angry right now i can’t even begin to explain it,” tweeted user @lenoraajoy .

In response to the frustration, Ticketmaster issued a statement: "There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale."

As of 1 p.m. ET in the afternoon, hundreds of thousands of tickets had already been sold, according to the ticket-selling giant. Along with the press release, Ticketmaster announced modifications to the rollout, like the West Coast sales being pushed to 3 p.m. from 10 a.m., and the Capital One sale being rescheduled to Nov. 15.

In addition to sharing grievances, fans joked about the ticket-buying process, causing "Ticketmaster" to trend on Twitter.

"Being stuck in the ticketmaster queue really has you wondering how different your life you be if you never listened to Our Song on the radio in 2006 that one time," one Twitter user wrote .

"8 billion people in the world and every single one of them is ahead of me in the taylor swift ticketmaster queue apparently," another wrote.

Others tweeted about Ticketmaster's services and website in general.

"ticketmaster better waive all the fees because there’s no reason why we should pay for services that don’t work,"@ greatbrittswift wrote.

The " Anti-Hero" singer is headed to 20 cities across the U.S., starting with Glendale, Ariz, the same place her "Reputation" tour began in 2018, starting March 23, 2023.

Other acts, including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, MUNA, HAIM, GAYLE, Gracie Abrams and OWENN, will accompany Swift.

Ticket demand should come as no surprise: Swift's latest album, "Midnights," has taken the internet by storm, with 10 songs holding all top 10 spots in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at once.

Responding to the news in a tweet from Billboard, Swift wrote, "10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES."

Becca Wood is a news and trending reporter for TODAY Digital based in New York City. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

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Swiftly resolved? The problems in concert ticketing – and how to fix them

After an outright debacle in the US, European fans of Taylor Swift have still found getting tickets to be a nightmare. Industry experts explain how to improve the experience

L ast year, thousands faced disaster when trying to buy tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in the US. Fans said the presale access codes they were given didn’t work properly and the Ticketmaster website crashed repeatedly. As a result, the main sale was cancelled and a group of fans filed a lawsuit accusing the company of fraud, price-fixing and anti-trust violations. “We need to do better and we will,” said Joe Berchtold, president of Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation.

In the UK and Europe this month, presales for various dates and locations opened at different times and different days, to try and avoid the same issues – but fans have found the process stressful and unpredictable. We spoke to some of them about the difficulty of buying Swift tickets, and to people across the industry about how the ticketing system can be improved.

How transparent is the pricing and distribution system?

Ticket prices for the primary market (those sold through a tour’s official ticket partners) are determined by the artist and their team alongside the tour promoter. Sometimes, they employ dynamic pricing where ticket prices fluctuate according to demand, as they do in the airline industry. While this doesn’t seem to have been in play for the Taylor Swift presales, Ticketmaster has used it in the recent past for shows by Harry Styles and Coldplay (and got flack due to prices sometimes doubling ).

For artists playing arenas and stadiums, prices typically fluctuate depending on how close the tickets get you to the stage. Then there’s the growing popularity of various VIP packages which offer a host of add-ons (of varying quality) for an extra fee. Swift fans only found out how much they were expected to pay for tickets once they made it through the giant online queues to the seat allocation: the fans we spoke to for this article reported price tags that ranged from £78 to £600 for a single ticket.

What makes it even more confusing is that multiple ticket companies will usually be involved in selling tickets for one show. Adam Webb, campaign manager at campaign group FanFair Alliance, explains: “At the majority of UK venues, box office contracts are usually outsourced to a third-party ticket company, which can be guaranteed an allocation of up to 60-70% of the tickets.” Promoters will then appoint a range of other companies to sell the rest, “so it’s quite common to see two, three or four official ticket agents at UK shows,” he says. For the Eras tour in the UK and Europe, there are five official providers operating across the different territories: Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventim, See Tickets and eBilet.

That’s before you get to secondary resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub. Ticket prices are determined by the third-party seller and based on demand, hence they can reach extortionate levels. A recent listing on Viagogo priced up one ticket for Swift’s 21 June Wembley Stadium date from £49 face value to £393, plus a £74 booking and “handling” fee.

How much preparation does it take to get a Swift ticket?

Swift fans have been employing complex strategies involving spreadsheets, group chats, multiple computers and social media in order to aid their success in getting tickets. Hopeful fans needed to register for a presale code, which they already had if they’d pre-ordered Swift’s Midnights album last year. . Registration didn’t guarantee a code, and some were waitlisted; even those with codes are then put into a queue to buy tickets, their position seemingly random.

Andrea Rogers-Mühlhaus, a Swift fan who lives in Munich, had multiple presale codes and three computers set up for presale day. She and a friend tried to get tickets in Munich, Milan and Zurich but couldn’t get any that were in line with their €300 per-person budget.

After crying and feeling like she wanted to “throw up” from stress, Rogers-Mühlhaus’s husband got lucky. He managed to track down another code for Warsaw and secured affordable tickets. “I’m incredibly impressed,” she says. “I kept saying, ‘you can go all the way to the basket but it’s going to time out because it happened to me’. But it’s like he walked into a grocery store, picked up an apple, went to the checkout and it was his. It was so flawless.”

The Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes, who was eventually successful in buying tickets, has this tip: “Check again later once it seems as though a date is sold out, to try buying individual tickets – I got two in a row that way – and to keep searching for tickets even if it says none are found.”

What other issues have fans faced?

As well as these frustrations, French fans were left hanging last week after the sale was suspended due to a website glitch. And even fans who got through to the sale found themselves repeatedly getting timed out of the website, or panicking in the face of a 90-second checkout window.

Disabled fans trying to get tickets to the Wembley Stadium dates were faced with even more issues. They needed to call an access line managed by the venue directly, which Swift fan India Rose Meade says wasn’t functional on Monday’s presale day. “It would connect to the point that it would say ‘this line is too busy, please try again later’ and cut out after three or four seconds. It did that from opening time all the way through to the end of the day.” Meade eventually got hold of tickets by calling a different number on Tuesday.

Similarly, it took Jack Fermor-Worrell until 1.30pm on Tuesday afternoon “to reach an actual human being”. Then, he was faced with an option of buying a ticket for £197.25 – a “much higher price” than he’d hoped for. In a complaint written to the venue Fermor-Worrell said: “I feel beyond let down and somewhat insulted by the service that Wembley Stadium has provided to its disabled patrons throughout this entire experience.”

Is it a simple matter of demand outstripping supply?

A big part of the problem is unprecedented demand for the Swift shows. The 131-date tour could become the first in history to reach more than $1bn in ticket sales. Part of this is due to the fact that Swift is “having a moment”, says ticketing expert and consultant Tim Chambers: after dipping in favour at the end of the 2010s, Swift is back on top. Chambers calls the tour the “epitome of a frothy Fomo event”. Each show lasts more than three hours, encompassing highlights from her back catalogue to date.

There’s also pent-up demand: it’s Swift’s first tour since her 2017-18 Reputation dates. Since then, as Chambers points out, “we’ve had the pandemic, which forced a lockdown and limitation of live, and the re-recording of her back catalogue, so the tour is well-timed”.

Speaking of Covid, there’s also what economist Will Page correctly predicted to be “the slingshot” effect at play. After a two-year downturn of the live music industry, ticket sales bounced back last year as fans and artists clamoured to get back into venues to make up for lost time. According to data from trade title Pollstar , which concerns the US market, total ticket sale gross hit $6.28bn in 2022, up 13.2% on the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The publication is predicting a record-setting year at the box office thanks in large part to a number of big-selling artists, including Swift, being on the road.

What would a better, fairer ticketing situation look like across the industry?

Beyond improving technology to better handle high demand, it’s difficult to pinpoint what a different solution might look like. While there are many reports of issues with the sales process, other fans have been satisfied. Swiftie Mollie Corrigan managed to get seven tickets thanks to a presale code she got by ordering Swift’s latest Midnights album. “It meant that longtime fans got priority with tickets, which has been great compared to the general sale system where it’s random, and a lot less people were trying for the tickets at one time.”

Pixies manager Richard Jones says the issue lies in the complexity of the buying process. “I personally think they’ve tried to be too clever and made the entire process far too frustrating and difficult for people, who have other things going on in their lives. Yes, the demand is insane but knowing that, they need to prepare in a more sensible way. Make it more streamlined, make it very clear what you need to do to try and get a ticket and put all the dates on sale at the same time.”

When it comes to the secondary market, Jones says artists and their teams could have better control and “immediately” cancel any tickets that show up on websites like Viagogo and StubHub, a process he calls “complex, but very doable”.

Phil Hutcheon, who heads up ethical ticketing platform Dice, says the issues associated with the Eras tour create a “lack of trust” in the market. His platform advertises prices up front and doesn’t allow reselling. If fans can’t go to a sold-out show, organisers can deploy an option where, at the tap of a button, a refund is issued and the ticket goes to someone on a waiting list. “It’s not rocket science – it should be the same as buying a toaster on Amazon,” he says.

“At a basic level I think most of us want transparency,” concludes FanFair Alliance’s Webb. “We want clear upfront info about which companies are licensed to sell tickets, the pricing, and any important information about its use. And we also want to know where we can resell a ticket at the price paid or less, while cutting out the parasitical secondary market that invests nothing in UK culture.”

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Ticketmaster Pauses Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Sale in France

Fans trying to purchase tickets to six of the pop superstar’s concerts faced long queues and technical issues before the company said that a new on-sale time would be announced.

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By Ben Sisario

Ticketmaster has once again cracked under the weight of a Taylor Swift ticket sale — this time in France.

As French fans prepared on Tuesday to purchase tickets to six concerts in May and June 2024 on Swift’s Eras Tour —  four shows in Paris, two in Lyon — Ticketmaster’s website displayed a gigantic queue of customers ready to buy; one screenshot appeared to tell a fan that 1,023,504 shoppers were in line ahead of them.

Soon, Ticketmaster announced that sales for those shows had been placed on “pause.” The company said that a new on-sale time would be announced, and that “all codes not already used will remain valid.” But some fans’ social media posts seemed to show technical errors on Ticketmaster’s website, including a progress icon that “keeps spinning and spinning and spinning,” as one fan — speaking English with an American accent, but with 762 euros’ worth of tickets in their shopping cart — put it.

A few hours later, the French branch of Ticketmaster offered some more detail on social media, blaming the problem on a “third-party provider” that the company did not identify, and adding that tickets were still available. A representative of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s corporate parent, said that the provider works with Ticketmaster only in France.

The situation in France appeared to be a frustrating repeat of the problems that plagued Swift’s North American presale in November, when an influx of millions of fans — and bots — overwhelmed Ticketmaster’s systems, and fans reported issues like tickets in their shopping carts disappearing before they could be purchased. Ticketmaster shut down its public sale as a result, though the company also said it had sold more than two million tickets to the tour in a single day.

Problems like those at Swift’s presale in November — as well as long-simmering concerns over Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s market dominance — led to a brutal Senate Judiciary hearing in January. Senators from both parties flatly called the company a monopoly and were skeptical of an executive’s explanation that Ticketmaster was unable to defend itself against an onslaught of bots during Swift’s presale.

“This is unbelievable,” Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, said at the hearing. “Why is it,” she added, “that you have not developed an algorithm to sort out what is a bot and what is a consumer?”

Yet the demand for Swift tickets has been extraordinary, with Swift selling out stadiums everywhere she plays and tickets going for thousands of dollars on the secondary market. She is scheduled to complete the North American leg of her tour next month, then play in Latin America, Asia and Europe.

The Justice Department has separately been conducting an antitrust investigation of Live Nation. The Justice Department has not confirmed that investigation, but Live Nation’s chief executive, Michael Rapino, has spoken about it openly.

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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Conspiracy Theories: In recent months, conspiracy theories about Swift and her relationship with Kelce have proliferated , largely driven by supporters of former President Donald Trump . The pop star's fans are shaking them off .

Ticket sales for Taylor Swift tour reignite fan frustration over Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster’s homepage was temporarily knocked offline Tuesday as fans flooded the site to get tickets for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour.

“HOW IS TICKETMASTER ALREADY DOWN ?????? #TaylorSwiftTix” one fan wrote , echoing the frustration of thousands of “Swifties,” the nickname for diehard Swift fans, vying to see their favorite artist in her first concert tour since before the pandemic.

Swift's 2023 U.S. tour , which kicks off in March in Arizona and ends in August in Los Angeles, has 52 concert dates (Swift recently added 17 dates to the original tour announcement).

Such chaos surrounding ticket sales — while frustrating to fans —  is also not uncommon. In recent years, buying concert tickets has become increasingly competitive and expensive, as Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have taken a growing share of the music tour business. 

Backlash against the ticketing companies has also grown: When a major artist announces a tour, fans inevitably complain on social media about Ticketmaster’s high fees and unchecked scalping. Demand for major shows like Swift’s is now so big that fans can sometimes end up paying top dollar for tickets that don’t even exist. 

“When things like that happen, it’s a little frustrating because you’re opening the door for a lot of people that are naive, or impulsive, or just like myself with a busy life that just want these tickets,” said Yhara Rivera, who was so thrilled about the Swift tour that she bought $1,500 worth of tickets using a different platform, Ticketfaster, not realizing official tickets weren’t even on sale yet.  

“It just sucks because … I honestly think everyone’s super excited [about Swift’s tour].”

By Tuesday morning, Ticketmaster was trending on Twitter , with fans flooding the site with complaints. “Swifties” was also trending on Twitter.

Some fans reported that the queue had been “temporarily paused,” causing uncertainty as to if and when they’d ever obtain tickets

Ticketmaster and Live Nation did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to CNN , a spokesperson for Ticketmaster said the “site is not down” and that “people are actively purchasing tickets."

In a tweet, Ticketmaster's Fan Support account said , "We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve."

Hours later, Ticketmaster gave fans another update on Twitter , writing that "there has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale."

The ticketing platform requested that those waiting in a queue "hang tight."

"Queues are moving and we are working to get fans through as quickly as possible," Ticketmaster wrote, adding that the time slot for West Coasters who want to get tickets has moved from 10 a.m. PT to 3 p.m. PT.

As of 1:05 p.m. ET, “hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold," Ticketmaster said.

A spokesperson for Swift did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Verified fan’ experience can further frustrate fans

In recent years, Ticketmaster has offered North American fans the option of registering as “Verified Fans” to enter a lottery to buy tickets for certain shows. The feature, meant to “ensure that more tickets go to the fans who will actually attend the event,” dissuades scalpers by inviting certain registered Verified Fans to purchase tickets the night before they go on sale, according to Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster provides the selected fans with a code and a link to the purchase site. When tickets go on sale, the link leads fans to a “Smart Queue” that “keeps ticket bots out.” Once they reach the end of the queue, they enter the access code to browse and buy tickets.

Ahead of Swift’s tickets being released, Ticketmaster reminded fans that “no Verified Fan tickets have been sold.” 

“Many unofficial sellers will list tickets on secondary marketplaces even before they go on sale,” the company wrote in an email to fans, adding also that “codes cannot be purchased. You should not trust anyone trying to sell you a code.”

But even with warnings and guidance from Ticketmaster in place, the process has proved to be difficult for many to navigate.

Last year, fans of Olivia Rodrigo ended up disappointed after they said Ticketmaster’s technical difficulties kept them from buying the coveted tickets when they went on sale. 

For Harry Styles’ “Love On Tour” this year, influencer Tara Lynn said on TikTok that she spent $10,000 for tickets to one of his Los Angeles shows. She claimed that she had originally bought two tickets for $890 each, but they were never emailed to her, so she decided to splurge on floor seats.

Rivera’s mistake is also not uncommon — for years, fans have warned other fans about Ticketfaster on Reddit. A spokesperson for Ticketfaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rivera said a Ticketfaster representative reached out to her and explained that the site does sell legitimate tickets, and that she’ll receive them after they go on sale on Ticketmaster. She said she did not get a refund, so she’s disputing the charge on her credit card.  

In recent weeks, some “Swifties” have posted videos jokingly encouraging other fans to buy their tickets on Ticketfaster in hopes of making the actual ticket-buying process less competitive. 

Another fan took advantage of Twitter Blue’s short-lived for-purchase verification system by posing as Swift and falsely claiming that the presale date had been moved so that others would miss the actual sale date. The account has since been suspended.

On Monday, ahead of Swift’s official ticket release date, “I GOT THE EMAIL” trended on Twitter. Users shared screenshots of emails from Ticketmaster that said “Your invitation to TaylorSwiftTix Presale powered by Verified Fan.” “You’ve been selected!” the email reads. 

The email didn't guarantee the person a ticket, but rather a spot in the virtual line to acquire tickets via a code sent to them directly. Those who weren’t selected quickly lamented how they did not get a code.  

Officials pledge to help combat ‘junk fees’

Ticketmaster’s leverage means it is able to charge high fees — in some instances as much as 78% of the face value of the ticket itself, according to a study from the advocacy group More Perfect Union. 

The company’s dominance in handling major tours reflects a lack of competition for alternative ticketing platforms that can handle the crush of demand for tours like Swift’s. 

“At the heart of so much of the problem in the ticketing space is the de facto monopoly Ticketmaster has,” said New York state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat who this year led passage of a law to bring greater transparency to the ticket-buying process in the state. 

“Everyone except federal regulators view Ticketmaster as a monopoly, and from that come all the bad things that happen when there’s a monopoly in an industry,” Skoufis said.

Ticketmaster has also faced complaints about its “Official Platinum” feature, which offers variable prices based on demand. For example, tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming tour were listed as high as $5,000 each on the first day, according to CNBC .

That news prompted Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, to write a letter to Live Nation calling for “much needed transparency to the sale, pricing, and distribution of live-event tickets.”

“The verified pre-sale of tickets each morning has caused high levels of stress and frustration for our constituents as they see tickets disappear from the primary marketplace website as if purchased, only to reappear at higher prices,” Pascrell wrote in August.

Ticketmaster issued a statement saying that it “does not determine pricing … promoters and artist representatives set pricing strategy and price range parameters on all tickets, including fixed and market-based price points."The fee situation has gotten the attention of the White House. 

Last month, President Joe Biden announced he would begin cracking down on what he called junk fees that are often initially hidden from consumers when they search for a ticket, or are added on after buying.

“Each year, these ‘junk fees’ ... that companies charge cost Americans tens of billions of dollars, weighing down family budgets and making it harder for people to pay their bills,” Biden said.  “So my administration is taking action to eliminate these fees.” 

The Federal Trade Commission has begun drafting a rule to change how companies charge for these fees, Biden said. 

Live Nation appeared to welcome the news.

“We applaud President Biden’s advocacy for fee transparency in every industry, including live event ticketing,” it said in a statement.    

As for the Swift ticket sales chaos on Tuesday, Ticketmaster urged fans on Twitter to avoid going through its homepage to get tickets.

"If you received a code to the TaylorSwiftTix Presale, please login and access the queue through the link you received via text rather than entering through the Ticketmaster homepage," Ticketmaster tweeted . "This will ensure an optimal shopping experience."

One fan replied , "Has anyone actually been able to get tickets??"

Rob Wile is a breaking business news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Morgan Sung is a trends reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Correction : The NewsHour incorrectly reported that the band Pearl Jam sued the Justice Department in 1994 accusing Ticketmaster of monopolizing ticket sales. Pearl Jam filed a complaint with the Justice Department. We regret the error.  

Taylor Swift fans hoping to score tickets to her upcoming tour have met a confusing and chaotic system. The problems sparked widespread criticism of Ticketmaster's grip on the market. Diana Moss of the American Antitrust Institute joined John Yang to discuss the issue.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Judy Woodruff:

Fans of Taylor Swift hoping to score tickets to her upcoming tour have met a confusing and chaotic system, prompting outrage from fans and lawmakers alike.

John Yang has more.

A mega-tour by megastar Taylor Swift is stirring up bad blood between the singers fans and the company behind the show.

Back on tour for the first time in five years, Swift is selling out stadiums across the country for her Eras show. But that didn't make it easier for fans trying to score tickets.

Ticket Seeker:

Come on. We got to go, 13 minutes.

Posting their experience online, hopeful Swifties flooded Ticketmaster for presale seats, only to face extensive wait times, steep fees, and glitches. The site froze more than once as the queue numbered in the thousands.

We are talking $750 a ticket for down here.

Ticketmaster blamed historically unprecedented demand and urged patience.

But critics saw a different issue, the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation that combined venues, artist management and ticketing under a single powerful company.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: Look, folks, these are junk fees.

Last month, President Biden promised to crack down on surprise charges for concert tickets and other purchases.

President Joe Biden:

They benefit big corporations, not consumers, not working families. And that changes now.

And, yesterday, lawmakers, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called for more action.

She wrote on Twitter: "Ticketmaster is a monopoly. Its merger with Live Nation should never have been approved. Break them up."

I did not get tickets to see Taylor.

Heartbroken fans who found sold out shows on Ticketmaster turned to resale sites and were outraged again.

Tickets in the sections that I was trying to get tickets for are now on StubHub being resold for thousands of dollars.

Swifties aren't the first to face this problem.

In 1994, even before the Live Nation merger, rock band Pearl Jam sued the Justice Department accusing Ticketmaster of monopolizing ticket sales. The case was dismissed.

This all follows the release of Swift's 10th studio album, "Midnights," a tour spotlighting the prices and vices of the music industry, singles like "Anti-Hero" drawing attention to antitrust law.

We reached out to Ticketmaster for comment, but did not hear back in time for the broadcast.

Diana Moss is president of the American Antitrust Institute, which advocates for greater enforcement of antitrust laws.

Diana Moss, thanks for joining us.

Explain your argument. Draw the line for us, in your — from your perspective, from that Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in 2010 to the experience that Taylor Swift fans were having this weekend.

Diana Moss, President, American Antitrust Institute:

Thanks, John.

Absolutely. So, the merger is now 12 years old. That merger created an enormous monopoly, with a wingspan that covers everything from artist management, to concert promotion, to venue management, to ticketing.

And when you put a firm together that has that kind of market power, the exercise of that market power, whether it be through threats to concert venues if they don't take Ticketmaster as their platform, or whether it is high ticket fees to consumers, we are seeing all of that market power.

And the Taylor Swift incident, much like the Springsteen incident, was very symptomatic of how powerful this 800-pound gorilla is.

Now, Ticketmaster points out that the Taylor Swift tour is not being promoted by Live Nation. It is being promoted by a competitor.

What do you say to that?

Diana Moss:

Well, I think that's really important to realize that Taylor Swift herself has a lot of market power.

And all — all we ever hear about really are the big artists, like the Springsteens and the Swifts. Those artists have a lot of bargaining power in who they can deal with. We should be more worried about the smaller artists, the smaller bands who don't have that kind of bargaining power, who have to deal with Live Nation/Ticketmaster. They don't have many choices in the marketplace.

And so they're forced into these relationships, and suffer as a result of it.

So does that, in a way, sort of shape or warp the live — the live concert market industry and affect smaller groups?

I think it does.

I think when we look at — we look at the harms from the monopoly that Live Nation/Ticketmaster has, we have got to look at everything, from the artist's end of the spectrum all the way through those smaller businesses that struggle to survive in artist management, concert promotion, the smaller venues, all the way down to the consumer end.

And I think, when we take that big picture view, we see how harmful the lack of competition is in this place. And that affects innovation in the music industry. And it also affects innovation in consumer-facing markets, for example, this experience with the crashing of the Ticketmaster platform.

If we had more competition, we would have multiple platforms duking it out in a competitive market to provide excellent quality of service to fans.

What role do the resale sites like StubHub, and Ticket Market — Ticketmaster, rather, has its own resale site. What role do they play in all of this?

Yes, so the resale markets are really, really critically important.

They give fans a chance who can't attend their events for whatever reason to go resale — resell their tickets. Other fans get their hands on tickets. So it's actually a really efficient way for markets to work. What Ticketmaster has done is leverage its monopoly and market power into the resale markets.

And they have very restrictive policies that affect how well those resale markets work, for example, something called hold-backs, where they only release small amounts of tickets at a time and prices spike when they go on sale. Transferability of tickets is a problem. That restricts the ability of the secondary markets to function properly.

So, Ticketmaster's policies absolutely invade the resale market and affect competition there as well.

When the Obama Justice Department approved this merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, they put restrictions on it. They said that they had — there was a consent decree that they had to operate under.

Is there enough oversight to make sure they're not violating their agreement?

That's hard stuff to monitor.

Monitoring from the outside how a company is doing its business, whether they're violating the conditions, is really, really difficult. And when the Justice Department came in just a couple of years ago and extended those very ineffective conditions, that was a real failure of antitrust — antitrust enforcement.

And what we need is stronger antitrust enforcement in this space to create the competition that the merger wiped out.

Diana Moss of the American Antitrust Institute, thank you very much.

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Mo elshehri signs up for season 2 of neom-shot ‘one million dollar land’ survival show, taylor swift chokes up on stage during final liverpool concert in eras tour.

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It’s taken the UK’s great musical city of Liverpool to do it, but Taylor Swift was finally brought to tears by her fans on Saturday evening, as she performed her final concert there in front of a crowd of 60,000.

The singer had staged three shows at the Anfield stadium – more famous for its long association with Liverpool FC. The Daily Mail reports that Swift began looking “visibly emotional” while singing her 2020 hit Champagne Problems .

This moment came the same day as her ex-partner Joe Alwyn broke his silence on their long relationship being referenced in Swift’s most recent album The Tortured Poets Department .

The Saturday show saw Swift surprise the crowd with a fresh acoustic mash-up of her songs; this time it was Carolina and No Body No Crime , and also The Manuscript and Red .

The tour will continue in the UK with Swift heading to Cardiff on Tuesday before London later in the month.

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Taylor Swift Left Wonderstruck Over 8-Minute Standing Ovation at L.A. Eras Tour Show

"I'm going to spend several decades trying to figure out words for how that just made me feel," she gushed.

By Hannah Dailey

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Taylor Swift was definitely wonderstruck, blushing all the way home after her Tuesday (Aug. 8) concert. The pop star was left in awe in the middle of her fifth consecutive Eras Tour show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., when, following her performance of “Champagne Problems,” the crowd rewarded her with a nearly eight-minute standing ovation.

The 6 Best Moments From Night 4 of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at LA’s SoFi Stadium

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The show marked Swift’s second-to-last night at SoFi Stadium, where she’s scheduled for a total of six nights, concluding the first U.S. leg of the Eras Tour . Starting Aug. 24, she’ll take the trek global with a slew of international dates in Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe before returning to the states in 2024 for a second North American leg .

“I’m going to spend several decades trying to figure out words for how that just made me feel,” Swift added after the night five standing “O.” “I’m trying to get it together. I’ve completely lost control over my brain, and that’s your fault. I’m just gonna float through the rest of the show, so thanks for that.”

The first five nights at SoFi have been jam-packed with great moments, from the magical “Exile” singalong to the emotional mid-show hug Swift shared with Bianka Bryant , daughter of the late Kobe Bryant. Fans have been treated to some quality surprise songs over the course of the miniature residency — “I Can See You,” “Maroon,” “Our Song,” “You Are in Love,” “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” “Dress,” “I Know Places” and “King of My Heart” — and stars such as Lupita Nyong’o, Mindy Kaling, Brie Larson, Kesha, Gayle King and many, many more were in attendance.

Watch Taylor Swift react to her eight-minute standing ovation below:

Taylor after the crowd cheered for over SEVEN MINUTES after champagne problems #LATSTheErasTour #TSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/7VIjzFnQRI — Jessica🫶🏻 LA (@onlyoneofjess) August 9, 2023

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Taylor Swift Confirms Eras Tour Won’t Get Any More Extensions: ‘This Tour Is Going to End in December — That’s It’

By Chris Willman

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For anyone who hoped that the Eras Tour might get an extension into its third calendar year with added dates in 2025, Taylor Swift has disabused them of that notion, affirming that her global trek really will come to a close with its currently scheduled final dates in North America in December of this year.

Swift made the proclamation while performing the 100th date of the tour on the first night of a weekend engagement in Liverpool on Thursday.

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“And that feels like so far away from now,” she added. “But then again, it feels like we just played our first show on this tour. Because you have made this so much fun for us that we wanted to do a hundred shows, 150-something shows that we have on the whole tour.

“And I think that  this tour has really become my entire life. Like, it’s taken over everything. I think I once had hobbies, but I don’t know what they were anymore. Because all I do when I’m not on stage is like sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mashups and think about what you might want to hear.  So when I’m not on the stage, I’m dreaming about being back on the stage with you guys. And you have done so much to be with us. You’vee made plans so far in advance. You planned what you were gonna wear, you memorized lyrics, you got yourselves here, you figured out parking, you figured out transportation. … And just know that I appreciate every single ounce of effort that you put in to be with us, (as) this tour reaches triple digits of of shows.”

Although Swift’s camp has not released any box office grosses from the tour, industry experts believe the total gross will surpass $2 billion by the time it wraps up in December. The closest runner-up will remain Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road,” which grossed $939 million over a five-year span.

Swift’s European tour will wrap up Aug. 20 with the second of two runs in London’s Wembley Stadium. From there, she is scheduled to take time off from the road before returning to U.S. stadiums in November for the first time since late 2023, doing shows in just three U.S. cities — Miami, Indianapolis and New Orleans — before the tour concludes in late November and early December with six shows in Toronto and three in Vancouver. The last date is scheduled in the latter Canadian city for Dec. 8.

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The end of an Eras Tour: Taylor Swift opens up about tour winding down at UK concert

It’s the end of an Eras Tour .

Taylor Swift was introducing “All Too Well” on stage in Liverpool on Thursday, June 13, with a speech about it being the 100th show on a tour she said, “has definitely been the most exhausting, all-encompassing but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life” when she acknowledged that the tour would not go on forever.

"This is the very first time I’ve ever acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is gonna end in December ," she said.

"Like, that's it. And that feels like so far away from now. But then again, it feels like we just played our first show on this tour 'cause you have made it so much fun for us that we wanted to do 100 shows, 150-some shows that we have on the whole tour."

Taylor Swift launched The Eras Tour in Swift City, also known as Glendale

Swift launched the record-breaking Eras Tour with  a sold-out two-night stand at State Farm Stadium  in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday and Saturday, March 17-18, 2023, unveiling a staggering 44-song setlist in the course of a marathon set that ran more than three hours and still left fans wanting more.

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Even Glendale emerged as a media darling, thanks to a symbolic rebrand as Swift City in the singer’s honor, a storyline played out on digital billboards along freeways and in Glendale's Westgate Entertainment District, where State Farm Stadium is located, welcoming fans to Swift City (where Swift launched the Reputation Tour  in that same stadium five years earlier).

For what it's worth,  we would've gone with Glendale (Taylor's Version) .

Taylor Swift Eras Tour: 5 magic moments at State Farm Stadium that Arizonans saw first

The Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour of all time

The Eras Tour has become the highest-grossing tour of all time and the  first tour in history to generate more than $1 billion  in revenue.

There’s a concert film, naturally. Released in theaters worldwide on Oct. 13, 2023, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" quickly overtook a Justin Bieber movie to become the  highest-grossing concert film in history .

Following The Eras Tour launch, Swift immediately shot to  No. 1 on Pollstar's Artist Power Index chart , ending 2023 as  Time magazine’s perfectly obvious choice for Person of the Year .

"Swift’s accomplishments as an artist — culturally, critically and commercially — are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point," Time wrote.

Then, after running down a laundry list of those accomplishments while placing her alongside Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Madonna as a pop star, Time explained why she deserved the honor this year more than any other year.

"As a celebrity — who by dint of being a woman is scrutinized for everything from whom she dates to what she wears — she has long commanded constant attention and knows how to use it," Time wrote.

“But this year, something shifted. To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather — a language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world."

By that point,  USA TODAY had hired its own Taylor Swift reporter  and Swift had grabbed another first —  first billionaire in history with music as the main source of income .

Swift added a 'Tortured Poets Department' era to The Eras Tour

She added an era (and new costumes) to the Eras Tour in Paris, working songs from "The Tortured Poets Department," a new album she somehow found time to record in the midst of the tour, into the setlist on opening night of another European leg in May 2024, removing "The Archer," "Long Live," "The 1," "The Last Great American Dynasty," "'Tis the Damn Season" and "Tolerate It" to make room.

What is a fortnight? Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' vocabulary explained

Swift was feeling reflective in Liverpool as she talked about the record-breaking tour, which did 66 shows in 2023 and will hit 86 shows this year by the time it concludes with three shows in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"I think this tour has really become my entire life," she said.

"It's taken over everything. Like, I think I once had hobbies. But I don't know what they were anymore. 'Cause all I do when I'm not on stage is sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mashups and think about what you might want to hear. When I'm not on the stage, I'm dreaming about being back on the stage with you guys."

Then she thanked the fans for all they've done to make the tour a worldwide phenomenon.

"You have done so much to be with us, right?" she said.

"You've made plans so far in advance. You planned what you were going to wear. You memorized lyrics. You got yourselves here. You figured out parking. You figured out transportation, and I want to spend my hundredth show just thinking about that and living in this moment with you and being here with you.

"And just know that I appreciate every single ounce of effort that you've put into being with us when this show reaches triple digits in shows. So thank you!"

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Night 1 setlist in Glendale, Arizona

“Lover” album:

• “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.”
• “Cruel Summer.”
• “You Need To Calm Down.”
• “The Archer.”

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” album:

• “Fearless.”
• “You Belong With Me.”
• “Love Story.”

“Evermore” album:

• “’Tis The Damn Season.”
• “Marjorie.”
• “Champagne Problems.”
• “Tolerate It.”

“Reputation” album:

• “… Ready For It?”
• “Delicate.”
• “Don’t Blame Me.”
• “Look What You Made Me Do.”

“Speak Now” album:

• “Enchanted.”

“Red (Taylor’s Version)” album:

• “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
• “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
• “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”

“Folklore” album:

• “Invisible String.”
• “The Last Great American Dynasty.”
• “Illicit Affairs.”
• “My Tears Ricochet.”
• “Cardigan.”

“1989” album:

• “Blank Space.”
• “Shake It Off.”
• “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version).”
• “Bad Blood.”

Surprise songs:

• “Mirrorball.”
• “Tim McGraw.”

“Midnights” album:

• “Lavender Haze.”
• “Anti-Hero.”
• “Midnight Rain.”
• “Vigilante (expletive).”
• “Bejeweled.”
• "Mastermind."

Reach the reporter at  [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter  @EdMasley .

Support local journalism.   Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Taylor Swift Gets Emotional During Nearly 8-Minute Standing Ovation on L.A. 'Eras Tour' Stop

Cameron diaz dances to taylor swift with tiffany haddish in rare appearance at concert, kyle richards' daughter portia in tears over luxury car surprise from parents, ashanti reacts to potential 'john tucker must die' sequel (exclusive), howie mandel recalls finding wife covered in blood after falling in vegas hotel room, adele stunned by young look-alike fan mid-concert, kelly ripa and mark consuelos reunite with their 'all my children' baby, '90 day fiancé': kobe reacts to emily's grand entrance during traditional wedding ceremony, watch kylie jenner and aire give the abcs a 'rise and shine' twist, inside ashanti's maternity shoot as she celebrates first child with nelly (exclusive), jonathan knight on meeting husband harley and new 'farmhouse fixer' spinoff (exclusive), usher reveals he doesn't eat on wednesdays, jason momoa and daughter lola take motorcycle ride to 'the bikeriders' premiere, ariana grande explains why she changes her speaking voice so much, carrie underwood and family 'unharmed' after tennessee home catches fire, sir ian mckellen, 85, in 'good spirits' after falling 3 feet off stage, what's next for justin timberlake following dwi arrest, chrissy teigen claps back after trolls criticize her 'dirty' bathwater, 'modern family' cast reunion why claire, phil, cam and mitch are back together, justin timberlake charged with dwi in the hamptons, ashanti spills on pregnancy with nelly: finding out, cravings and how she'll be as a mom, austin butler recalls taylor swift djing at paul mccartney's 'insane' house party, 'that was so deeply abnormal and beautiful,' she told the crowd at tuesday night's concert..

Taylor Swift enjoyed a "deeply abnormal and beautiful" moment during her latest stop on The Eras tour in Los Angeles, California. 

After performing "Champagne Problems" during Tuesday's concert at SoFi Stadium, Swift got emotional as the audience delivered a standing ovation for nearly eight minutes. 

"What do I say to you after that?" she asked the crowd. "That was so deeply abnormal and beautiful. I don't know what to do or say." 

She continued, "I think it's safe to say that I, like all people, will experience a certain amount of emotional downward spirals throughout the course of the rest of my life and in those moments, you can rest assured I'm gonna think about what you just did. And I'm gonna feel better. So thank you. That was insane. It was crazy." 

Swift took some time to collect herself, admitting that she was still struggling to come up with an appropriate reaction as she rambled on.

"I'm going to spend several decades trying to figure out words for how that just made me feel," she said. "I'm trying to get it together. I've completely lost control over my brain -- and that's your fault."

She concluded, "I'm just gonna float through the rest of the show, so thanks for that."

Before that, amid the applause, Swift was captured looking shocked and moved in several videos on social media. While she stayed quiet, she could be seen shaking her head while mouthing things like, "Oh my God," "What do I do?" and "I have lost control of the crowd." 

Tuesday marked Swift's fifth night at SoFi Stadium, her second-to-last performance on the first U.S. leg of her tour. She'll wrap up in Los Angeles with a final bow on Wednesday, Aug. 9, before kicking off her international dates on Aug. 24 in Mexico City, Mexico.

While celebrities have attended The Eras Tour in droves all across the country, Swift's L.A. performances have been particularly star-studded. Among her most recent concertgoers are Selena Gomez, Emma Stone, Charlize Theron, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Taylor Lautner, Cameron Diaz, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Costner, Sophia Bush, Victoria Justice, Ashley Greene, Zoe Saldana, Sofia Richie, Haley Lu Richardson, Michelle Monaghan, Camilla Luddington, Mariska Hargitay, Courteney Cox and Kaia Gerber,  to name just a few . 

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Taylor swift gets emotional on stage at final liverpool show after ex joe alwyn breaks silence on their split.

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Taylor Swift had an emotional performance on Saturday night.

While on stage during her last Liverpool show, the “Fortnight” singer, 34, was seen fighting back tears.

Inside Anfield stadium (which seats up to 60,000), the singer performed “Champagne Problems” and looked visibly overwhelmed by the audience’s reaction.

🎥 I Applause after Champagne problems! #LiverpoolTStheErasTour pic.twitter.com/Gx90BtEXZo — Taylor Swift News (@DailyTSwiftNews) June 15, 2024

After a lengthy applause from the crowd, Taylor picked up her microphone and said, “It is genuinely such an honor to play for a crowd like this. That fact that you would do that for us — I love you so much, Liverpool. Thank you.”

Swift also celebrated her 100th Eras Tour show earlier this week.

The next stop on her Eras Tour is Cardiff on Tuesday. She also has shows in London from June 21 to June 23.

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Swift’s show of emotion comes after her ex-boyfriend of more than six years Joe Alwyn broke his silence on their breakup. The couple officially called it quits in April 2023.

“I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathise and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years,” he told the Times in an interview published Saturday. “That is a hard thing to navigate.”

“What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later,” he added, “it’s suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in.”

Alwyn, 33, continued noting how the fame of their relationship further played a role in their breakup by being thrust into the media “where it is then dissected, speculated on, pulled out of shape beyond recognition.”

“And the truth is, to that last point, there is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that,” he said.

Alwyn also made it clear he’s never visited The Black Dog pub in London that Swift referenced on her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

While he does enjoy “seeing friends, traveling, going to the pub,” the actor also said he’s “never been to Vauxhall.” The pub is located at 112 Vauxhall Walk.

In “The Black Dog,” Swift, who has since publicly moved on with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce , sings about seeing an ex “walk into some bar called The Black Dog” to “pierce new holes in [her] heart.”

The lyrics have since led the pub to become a landmark for Swifties and the bar has since started selling merch inspired by the song .

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Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will end in December, she announces at 100th show

After playing Europe this summer, Swift will return to the United States and Canada. The last date set for the tour is Dec. 8 in Vancouver.

Taylor Swift said her record-breaking Eras Tour will end in December, appearing to confirm the tour’s conclusion for the first time Thursday night onstage in Liverpool, England.

The Anfield Stadium stop was the 100th show of the tour, which began in March 2023 . Swift told the audience that the milestone “doesn’t feel like a real statistic,” saying it felt like the tour had just begun.

“This has definitely been the most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life, this tour,” Swift said, according to footage from the audience posted on social media.

“The celebration of the 100th show for me means this is the very first time I’ve ever acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is going to end in December,” she continued. “That feels so far away from now, but then again, it feels like we just played our first show on this tour. Because you have made this so much fun for us that we wanted to do 100 shows — 150-something shows that we have on the whole tour.”

💯 | Taylor’s speech acknowledging the 100th show of The Eras Tour and confirms that December will mark the end of the tour #LiverpoolTStheErasTour pic.twitter.com/QrXFK5Uow4 — Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) June 13, 2024

Since the tour’s first stop in Glendale, Ariz., Swift has created a cultural phenomenon and solidified her pop dominance, performing in 17 states and 12 countries so far across North America, South America, Australia, Asia and Europe.

The 3½-hour-long show became the highest-grossing tour of all time by surpassing $1 billion in December, and it has broken attendance records at multiple stadiums. The film version became the highest-grossing concert film ever, according to the Grammy Awards.

Swift kicked off the European leg of her tour last month and will perform there through August. She will return to the United States briefly in October and November, with concerts in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis.

The tour’s final announced dates are in Toronto and Vancouver at the end of November and beginning of December, respectively. The last scheduled tour date is Dec. 8, five days before Swift’s 35th birthday.

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“This tour has really become my entire life. It’s become — it’s taken over everything. I think I once had hobbies, but I don’t know what they were anymore, because all I do when I’m not onstage is sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mashups and think about what you might want to hear,” Swift said at Thursday’s show. “When I’m not on the stage, I’m dreaming about being back on the stage with you guys.”

She made the comments before playing the 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” one of her most celebrated songs . Dressed in the red sequined costume that corresponds with her “Red” album, on which the song appears, Swift smiled as she acknowledged the lengths to which fans have gone to attend the concert.

“You have done so much to be with us, right? You’ve made plans so far in advance. You planned what you were going to wear, you memorized lyrics, you got yourselves here, you figured out parking, you figured out transportation,” Swift said.

“I want to spend the 100th show just thinking about that and living in this moment with you and being here with you. And just know that I appreciate every single ounce of effort that you put in to being with us.”

Taylor Swift Gets Emotional at Final Liverpool Show Singing a Song Written With Joe Alwyn

O n Saturday night, Taylor Swift performed her final Eras Tour show in Liverpool before she heads on to Cardiff and then London. The star reportedly got emotional, according to the Daily Mail , when she sang “Champagne Problems” from 2020’s Evermore , a song she wrote with ex-boyfriend of six years Joe Alwyn.

The crowd had a huge reaction to the tune and Swift took out her earpiece to hear them before saying, “It is genuinely such an honor to play for a crowd like this. That fact that you would do that for us—I love you so much, Liverpool. Thank you.”

This weekend, Alwyn spoke out about his breakup with Swift for the first time since their split in 2023, telling the Sunday Times UK about the difficulty of navigating a private split in public.

“I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years,” he explained. “That is a hard thing to navigate. What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later, it’s suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in.”

He added that even with Swift’s art and music being in the world, there’s plenty people don’t know.

“So you have something very real suddenly thrown into a very unreal space: tabloids, social media, press, where it is then dissected, speculated on, pulled out of shape beyond recognition,” he explained. “And the truth is, to that last point, there is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that.”

He continued, “As everyone knows, we together—both of us, mutually—decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private. It was never something to commodify, and I see no reason to change that now. And, look, this is also a little over a year ago now, and I feel fortunate to be in a really great place in my life, professionally and personally.”

Taylor Swift marks 100th show of Eras Tour: 'Feels truly deranged to say'

Taylor Swift is celebrating a major milestone as she nears the end of an era.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the pop superstar reflected on playing the 100th show of her wildly popular Eras Tour , which occurred last week in Liverpool .

"We played our 100th show on The Eras Tour (which feels truly deranged to say because this show feels new to me every time we play it)," Swift wrote, sharing a gallery of on-stage photos and one backstage snap.

"I want say thank you to our Eras Tour crew, my fellow performers and band who have now committed hundreds of hours to putting on this show and giving their all on and behind that stage. I can't believe the work ethic, creativity and dedication I get to be surrounded with every day."

She continued by thanking the crowd at her three Liverpool shows for being "so expressive and generous and endlessly FUN," adding, "AND thank you to everyone who has come to any of the shows on The Eras Tour. It's been the adventure of a lifetime because of you."

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While performing in Liverpool last week, the "Fortnight" singer confirmed the Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour of all time and the first to gross $1 billion, will end in December. She acknowledged the impending conclusion of the tour during a speech before her song "All Too Well."

Taylor Swift mashes up 'Crazier' from 'Hannah Montana' with this 'Lover' song in Scotland

"This is the very first time I've ever acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is going to end in December," Swift told fans. "This tour has really become my entire life, it's taken over everything, like I think I once had hobbies. All I do when I'm not on stage is sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mashups and think about what you might want to hear."

She also acknowledged the 100th show milestone, saying this number "blows my mind" and "doesn't feel like a real statistic." Swift described the Eras Tour as the "most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life."

Taylor Swift to end record-breaking Eras Tour in December, singer announces

The Grammy-winner kicked off the Eras Tour in March 2023, and she's set to return to North America in the fall. The tour's final show is currently scheduled for Dec. 8 in Vancouver.

The filmed version of "The Eras Tour," which was released theatrically last year and later debuted on Disney+, is the highest-grossing concert film of all time. It has not yet been announced if an updated version of the movie will be released after Swift tweaked her concert setlist to incorporate songs from her latest album, " The Tortured Poets Department ."

Contributing: Bryan West, USA TODAY NETWORK