Music lovers hoping to get a break on concert ticket prices were met with frustration and 503 errors as they tried to scoop up tickets on Live Nation’s Concert Week promotion.
The event, which offered $25 tickets to a wide variety of artists and over 5,000 shows and concerts, caused the Live Nation and Ticketmaster servers to collapse, resulting in page loading errors and “page not found” notifications. Those who managed to get in the queue for tickets saw their wait times extend to a half-hour or more as the system struggled to keep up, only to be met with an error when their time to purchase arrived.
Others found the long wait meant they had missed out on tickets.
This was the 10th anniversary of the promotion, which will run through May 18. Tickets, though, are limited, and fans hoping to find a cheap seat at a nearby show swarmed the site. Discounts for shows were as much as 75%—and the $25 price was inclusive of all fees (though not taxes, where applicable).
Social media was full of people grumbling about the errors and crashes, which were still occurring almost an hour into the start of the promotion—which can be an eternity when fighting bots to get tickets to live events.
It’s very much on brand for Ticketmaster’s site to crash as soon as the $25 concert week shows to go on sale lmfaoo
— chantel nanami. (@chantellyyy) May 8, 2024
Live look at @LiveNation’s execs rn:
— Austen Shipley (@austen_shipley) May 8, 2024
(So much for $25 concert week…) pic.twitter.com/lFUbjO9Ins
hey @LiveNation can u pls fix ur website i would like to buy tickets
— ash 🪩 (@seaviewrry) May 8, 2024
live nation and ticketmaster are really the worst
— mari (@loverrycore) May 8, 2024
Live Nation could have done without the public relations black eye of the $25 concert promotion. The company is still feeling the pains of disgruntled users who were unable to get tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour last year.
The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly preparing an antitrust lawsuit against the company over monopolistic behaviors.