A deep dive into Taylor Swift's Ticketmaster scheme and her growing need for pop culture domination. Bonus: The Swiftie Bond
Taylor Swift | Credit: Beth Garrabrant
Before starting this post, I had to take a deep breath because this one is a doozy (does that make me sound old?).
When it comes to Taylor Swift, I like to credit myself as pretty unbiased with her mainly because I’ve always stated I was 50/50 about her. I have no problem crediting her when it’s due and it brings me joy to drag her when needed. On my blog, you can find all sorts of information on Taylor whether that’s positive or negative.
One thing I’ve always said is that she LOVES her fans and unlike many artists, has gone out of her way to maintain such a personal relationship with them by inviting them to her home, dming them, helping them money-wise, and more. It’s something to applaud, right?
Yes, but like every great person… giving them too much power will ultimately lead them to abuse it.
This was showcased in the Ticketmaster debacle.
Ticketmaster Drama
In short, Ticketmaster was made to seem like the bad guy, being the “monopoly” over all sorts of tickets, and selling all of Taylor’s tickets to her upcoming Eras tour, in one day.
What was originally disguised as the presale for dedicated fans, was actually all the tickets being purchased, leading to the general sale (where it’s available for everyone to buy), being canceled since there were no more tickets left.
“Poor Taylor :( she got screwed over by Ticketmaster” her fans scream.
No… poor US because we constantly have to sit through another era of Victim-Taylor instead of understanding the obvious which she even lets us in on… she is a MASTERMIND.
And with her growing popularity and power, she is feening for MORE power… MORE money… how much can one person take before they explode? I guess Taylor will let us know.
Ticketmaster isn’t the only villain here. They, like other monopolies, surely wanted to cash in and make their money, but Taylor provoked the reaction. It isn’t a situation where we have to say “omg Taylegend’s impact crashed the site because people love her so much,” and yet that’s what people are saying…
Pop Culture Domination
Failing to mention that Taylor is a capitalist hungry machine who played a BIG PART in the Ticketmaster mess when she APPROVED of dynamic pricing… LEADING TO THIS MESS… is the problem here.
the worse part is that she trolls about being the problem whether that’s in the context of self deprecating beliefs, but she also uses this mentality when she is blamed for things… despite the fact that she should be rightfully held accountable considering, YES, she is the problem
Taylor is a mastermind and from the psychological perspective, she has conditioned her fans.
This was actually a very popular psychology experiment. The most famous example of classical conditioning was Ivan Pavlov's experiment with dogs, who salivated in response to a bell tone.
For some odd reason, I mention that experiment like weekly in my day-to-day life… I really don’t know why, but I’m obsessed with that experiment. Anyway!
Taylor is wild because she basically gives “treats” to her fans when they spend so much money on her and what’s their treat you may ask?
Getting a special spot in a queue to give Taylor money FIRST before anyone else <3 charitable queen!
For the Reputation tour, she had a system set up in place where the more money you spent in merch, the more streams you do, interactions, and so on; you get more points and the more points you get, the higher priority you have to get tickets.
So basically… the more money you give… the better chance you have to secure spots where you can…. ding ding ding… GIVE MORE MONEY…. but you do that BEFORE other people!
Taylor took that tactic that worked so well and turned it into this even bigger monster that resulted in all the tickets being sold in one day.
“I don’t think she necessarily anticipated the shitshow that happened with the insane prices, but she isn’t innocent,” my source says.
“She may not have anticipated for the prices to be THAT high, but there’s no doubt in my mind she knew it would go for a lot of money. And I say this because she did dynamic pricing.”
She’s been using dynamic pricing since 2018.
Dynamic pricing is charging a higher price at a time of greater demand. For example, flight tickets being much more expensive during the holidays or during the summer than at other times.
So the more demand there is for a ticket, the higher the price is going to continue going up and this is something that Taylor agreed to.
how much taylor tickets are
She knew there would be demand, but if she is so scared about her fans being attacked like bears like her dramatic statement said, why would you agree to dynamic pricing?
She posted on her Instagram story saying there was a “multitude of reasons” why people had difficulty buying tickets and that she was trying to understand how to improve in the future… hmm.. maybe because your fans couldn’t afford tickets priced at thousands of dollars when the highest was supposed to be a couple hundred?
“This, essentially, ensures that she gets her money for the high prices versus not allowing them to be resold over the face value that they’re given because instead of that money going to scalpers, it goes to her. To FULLY blame it on Ticketmaster is ridiculous, “ my source says.
“This is used so the artist can pocket the money, not scalpers. It takes the attention away from her because she had her prices set reasonably, but when dynamic pricing kicks in, they go up. It makes it seem like Ticketmaster is the greedy one which isn’t false, but Taylor has a big part to play in it and she definitely had a lot of control over it.”
In conclusion = Ticketmaster is greedy & runs a monopoly of the ticketing industry, but Taylor isn’t innocent and is equally as greedy as she upped the scales by approving dynamic pricing of her tickets.
She used this method in 2018 as well but went overboard with it this year.
In comparison, Ed Sheeran went out of his way to disapprove of dynamic pricing even though he could have 100% used it considering many artists use it, but he decided not to which allows his fans to afford them.
“To act like she isn’t at all at fault is ignorant and very, very naive. Plus, she controls literally 100% of everything else that involves her so why is this any different? Swifties are so quick to act like she’s still the innocent, unknowing 17-year-old they think she is. She’s a mastermind, and she has said it herself,” — my source spills.
Here are the messages between my source & me, including more messages explaining how fans were tricked into using boosts to obtain tickets, the ridiculous amount of remixes to win some BS clock, and more:
The Swiftie Bond—The Illusion of Closeness
My source and I have been going back & forth about Taylor and her Easter eggs tactics for months now.
While we can acknowledge that Taylor is a great artist, her calculated ways have grown oversaturated with her obsession with power and money.
For someone who has such a deep relationship with her fans to the point where they think they know Taylor more than they actually do because she makes it seem like they are reading her diaries through her lyrics; it’s funny & quite genius to see how she plans these Easter eggs (obviously, that’s what an Easter egg is) in a way to:
give the idea that her fans are closer to her than they actually are
plan the narrative so people can see it from her perspective
make them work overtime by giving them this puzzle to uncover which in the end gives Taylor more money and attention
“First, the Easter eggs and little details in her songs that only fans would pick up on have created this insane parasocial relationship where the fans think they have a “deep connection” with her because if you’re not a fan, you probably won’t pick up on the clues and don’t want to sit and analyze a music video for like twelve fucking hours straight,” my source says.
“A good analogy I thought of is how little kids who are best friends will make up a secret language that only they know. That “connection” breeds a type of loyalty that’s out of this world insane. And I realized that because of these tactics, it’s not totally the fans’ fault for being so rabid…they’ve basically been conditioned.”
It’s funny how I mentioned classical conditioning at the beginning of this post and now as I write the second half of this post, I read where my source says that these fans have basically been conditioned. Like I’ve been preaching for years… marketing and psychology all go hand in hand.
If you learn anything from this blog, learn that, because it’s something you can apply in your day-to-day life. Whether it’s with celebrities or your regular ole product advertising, everything works on the psyche of the mind. Let me know if yall wanna hear our very own psychologist, Alana, spill more about that.
Back to the tea.
Swifties are extremely loyal and overprotective of Taylor in a way that’s extreme for someone who is quite privileged. Sure Taylor has gotten a lot of hate and big bad men told her nO in the industry, but the way they protect and defend her as if she’s some victim is a little extreme.
And as always, rabid fans are a product of the celebrity. This is ALWAYS the case. In this essay, I will!
With her fans hyper-analyzing everything, something Taylor knows they will do, they invest their time over streaming her music to analyze these little clues that will benefit whom in the end? Taylor because they’re dedicating their time to her and giving her all this money.
Yes this is stan culture and it’s fun to want to celebrate your fave and use them to escape from real world problems, but there comes a point where it’s not organic, it’s forced, and a power imbalance comes to play.
Tell me… what do Swifties benefit from hyper-analyzing and getting these Easter eggs confirmed? I really want to know.
If any of yall wanna work for ESMG and hyper analyze our posts throughout the years, so you can help us update our very long list of credibility posts for our credibility page, let me know! I can put yall to good use!
More messages between my source & me:
Pop Culture Domination part 2
Then there’s the remix fiasco where she is releasing a million remixes of Anti-Hero in order to inorganically keep it at #1 while simultaneously blocking any other artists from hitting #1.
Taylor releasing yet ANOTHER remix to block Rich Flex from getting to #1 reminds me a lot of when she released Evermore vinyl records the week after Olivia Rodrigo's Sour release... then blocked Olivia from a second week at #1. https://t.co/FTLieGctLs
— A. (@ExposingSMG) November 17, 2022
And just now she’s trying to compete with the holiday boosts that Christmas songs usually get by releasing yet another “special limited time” gift for her fans to hide the fact that she’s insanely chart-obsessed.
My source elaborates on this weird bond created by Taylor and her fans that makes them have an “us vs. them” mentality which is why you see Swifties eat anyone in their path who has a mere opinion about Taylor.
Taylor Hasn’t Been The Victim In A Really Long Time
You really look into it and you realize that Taylor isn’t a victim, she’s a bully. She stands for women empowerment, but bullies women. She stands for inclusivity but refuses to speak out about the Grammy’s lack of inclusion in their voting process.
She made it her life’s mission to ruin Scooter Braun for making a business move just like she has in the past.
Taylor has blackmailed journalists and made sure no one gives her albums a low rating, but you want me to sympathize with a girl who got caught in the crossfire of a shark business deal where her work that her label gave her money to produce, was sold to someone else?
The same girlie who makes sure she has people sitting in the nomination process for the Grammys assuring her a nomination spot and a WIN (because the nomination alone isn’t enough)?
The same girlie who didn’t give a fck about Olivia Rodrigo’s blind worshiping of her and went & made sure to eat her up in publishing sales behind the scenes instead of offering a hand in mentorship especially after using Olivia’s current viral hits to promote her rerecordings?
The same girlie who refuses to share the stage or limelight with any other powerful woman in the industry because in her head, she’s #1 and alone she’s going to be #1?
Btw, I’m referencing the tea I spilled years ago about how Beyonce and Taylor won’t perform at the same show or event despite being in demand considering they released projects at the same time.
Taylor did not invent these shark business moves, dynamic pricing, releasing 9 million remixes, or Easter egg relationships with fans, but time and time again, it has been proven that she has gotten out of control.
Out of control with her greed, her obsession with being the victim despite being the textbook definition of a bully, and overall just being someone who I used to appreciate for being an entertaining pop artist, but is really someone who has nothing real in her life so she resorts to crafting this fantasy world with her fans in her castle where she isolated herself from everyone else.
Will Heath/NBC
But she’ll give her fans a painting of the castle and make them think that they’re welcome inside her world.
How long until she crashes?
I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below.
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Caught talking sh!t 🫣