Olivia Rodrigo’s upcoming Guts Tour in support of her new No. 1 album. Guts, was always going to be a big seller. The young singer-songwriter is one of the biggest stars in modern music today, and her fanbase is huge and incredibly eager to see the chart-topper perform live.
But where there is huge interest from real fans, scalpers will definitely be nearby. Ticketmaster hopes to use an interesting trick to prevent many of those interested only in making money from snapping up Guts Tour tickets and then reselling them to young listeners at a higher price.
If it works, the tactic could become common practice for the ticket seller as he works overtime to repair his image and solve some of the biggest problems facing U.S. concert ticket sales.
In an effort to stop – or at least severely limit – the practice of scalping and ensure that those who really want to go to concerts can get tickets, Ticketmaster has introduced a new window indicating when it will deliver passes to Rodrigo’s Guts. Tours.
Regardless of when someone purchases tickets, Ticketmaster will deliver them no earlier than 72 hours before the concert. The hope here is that speculators will be reluctant to risk their investment if they only have three days – or, more realistically, less – to sell tickets on the secondary market.
Ticketmaster also stated that tickets for the Guts Tour will only be available electronically. The company already has several processes in place to prevent resellers from not using the proper channels when reselling passes to upcoming shows.
This 72 hour rule is not new, but its use on such a hugely popular tour is yet another test of the system. A number of artists and their teams have already taken advantage of delays in ticket delivery. The company has tried this particular plan in the past with famous music stars like Doja Cat, Ed Sheeran, and Jack Harlow, to name a few.
This announcement shows that Ticketmaster is taking big steps and making real efforts to address the issues surrounding its business, with a particular focus on the secondary market. The company has faced huge criticism and even an inquiry from the US government after millions of fans faced frustrating obstacles while trying to get tickets to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, which is about to become the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Swifties in the US have had to deal with server failures and tickets selling out quickly. Some stood in online queues for hours and left empty-handed. Ticketmaster and Live Nation blamed many of the problems on bots and unprecedented demand, but that explanation didn’t help consumers feel any better.
Rodrigo’s Guts Tour is scheduled to launch in Palm Springs, California in February 2024. After the first tour was announced, the Grammy winner added 18 more dates to the tour, but the entire event still sold out in minutes.