Renaissance Goes Online On Ticketmaster

After five years, Beyoncé is going back on tour — and she’s selling her tickets on Ticketmaster.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the entertainer formally announced a tour for her most recent album, Renaissance, which came out in July 2022.

The tour is using the Verified Fan on Ticketmaster, who, along with parent company Live Nation Entertainment, was slammed for flubbing the sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. And the internet has some concerns — and jokes.

Related: Ticketmaster Apologizes to Taylor Swift Over Sales Disaster

“Swifties I Need You To Explain Ticketmaster To Me QUICKLY” one user wrote on Twitter. Ticketmaster was also trending on the social media platform at one point on Wednesday.

swifties I need you to explain ticketmaster to me QUICKLY pic.twitter.com/YX6erY9fRt

— doreidt (@thereidfeed) February 1, 2023

Ticketmaster, which merged with Live Nation in 2010, to create Live Nation Entertainment, has been criticized for years for its prevalence in the ticket industry and faced regulatory scrutiny.

But the concerns reached a fever pitch after the record-breaking sale of tickets to Swift’s first tour since 2018 in November.

People hoping to buy tickets registered for the Verified Fan program, which was intended to sort bots from real people and offer tickets in presales. But the system struggled immensely under the weight of what the company said was a record-breaking interest. Fans complained of long wait times, site crashing, and other malfunctions.

The fiasco led to Live Nation being hauled before the Senate in front of the Judiciary Committee in late January.

Beyoncé’s tour is running on a similar system that involves Verified Fan, with multiple presale registrations and tranches, at least for the North American part of the tour. Per dates currently posted on Ticketmaster, it begins in Philadelphia and ends in New Orleans.

Ticketmaster explained in a lengthy blog post how fans might go about obtaining tickets to the Beyoncé tour in various Verified Fan registration processes. One difference is that it appears registration windows vary by city.

Still, the use of Ticketmaster generated animated conversations online about how the company might handle the demand. The company pointed to its blog post in response to a request for comment.

Ticketmaster rn knowing the Beyhive is ascendant. pic.twitter.com/E6YyEWFYKT

— roxane gay (@rgay) February 1, 2023

ticketmaster watching the beyoncé fans coming after just dealing with taylor fans pic.twitter.com/Nt8QvJeSwu

— Alex (@alexxmalloy) February 1, 2023

Emailing Congress in advance just in case Ticketmaster tries to get slick. pic.twitter.com/Z38VvvkQR8

— Old Spice Cabinet (@KirkWrites79) February 1, 2023

Ticketmaster ops team seeing the beyonce tour announcedpic.twitter.com/vDqCGZ5epy

— Kushaan (@kushaanshah) February 1, 2023