What to know
- Fans say buying concert tickets has become increasingly stressful, with TikTok users reporting bot flags, massive queues and confusing multi-tier presales during high-demand tours like BTS and Harry Styles.
- Ticketmaster has responded with online explainers and tips, advising buyers to prepare accounts and payment details in advance, avoid multiple devices or VPNs, and use features like “Best Available” to speed up purchases.
- Toronto-based concert-goer Ann Mathew says she often skips presales due to price surges, instead buying verified resale tickets closer to show dates while warning others to be cautious of fake or suspicious sellers.
As Toronto gears up for a packed concert lineup this year, Ticketmaster and a seasoned concert-goer are giving tips on how to secure a seat at a hot-ticketed Toronto event.
Some of the biggest artists around the world are making tour stops in and around Toronto this year, including Bruno Mars, Doja Cat and Guns N’ Roses.
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However, people on social media have been increasingly complaining about how complicated and stressful the ticket-buying process is, often calling it “the Ticketmaster war.”
One TikTok user explains that they had trouble securing seats and was flagged as a bot while attempting to buy BTS tickets, leading to tickets selling out before she had a chance to buy them.
Some other users say they encountered long wait queues and were unable to get tickets for the show.
Meanwhile, with the latest Harry Styles tour announcement, fans are also able to buy through different sale tiers, such as AMEX presale, artist presale and general sale. But this resulted in queue lines that lengthened to almost half a million people with a wait time that lasted up to three hours long.
Ticketmaster’s tips for buying tickets
Following this announcement, Ticketmaster released an explainer on TikTok in order to attempt to simplify the process.
Ticketmaster also has a Tips, hints or advice for buying tickets page on their official website.
Before a ticket sale begins, Ticketmaster says it’s best to already have an account with them and have your password ready in advance of the queue opening.
Additionally, making sure your method of payment and delivery details are correct is also crucial.
During the sale, the ticket company advises fans to follow the per-person ticket buying limit and to save time by using their ‘Best Available’ ticket option, which they say filters through all the seats and prices to provide the most desirable option.
Ticketmaster also says it’s important to only use one browser and device, and not refresh too often or use a VPN, in order to avoid any errors or avoid being declared a bot.
Regular concert-goer gives advice on ticket buying process
Ann Mathew, a content creator and avid concert-goer based in Toronto, has been attending concerts since 2014, when she was in high school.
Since then Mathew has attended multiple concerts every year, with her highest number being 28 different shows in one year.
“It’s kind of a mix of R&B, pop and indie,” she told Now Toronto. “I do go pretty frequently.”
Over time, she’s become a bit more accustomed to buying concert tickets, especially off of Ticketmaster.
“I almost watch it like a stock price, which is so funny,” Mathew said. “I like to experience concerts on a budget, to be honest. I love experiences and I also like to travel. So, travel is more where I like to splurge. So, with concerts, I try to watch the prices better.”
Due to the stressful and expensive nature of the presale process, Mathew said she tends to opt out of that queue.
“I’m not a fan of Ticketmaster. I feel like the fact that they just price gouge a lot when they see that there’s a lot of demand for an artist,” she said. “What happened recently with Olivia Dean, she’s so well sought after, and seeing how they purposely increase the prices a lot, I just feel like it’s not regulated right now, so it does cause a lot of stress, which is why I try not to partake in the immediate purchase plan.”
Instead, Mathew said she leans more toward buying a resell ticket for a concert she wants to see, up to two weeks before the show.
“I actually rarely get the tickets in advance, unless I’m the first in the pre-sale line,” she said. “Otherwise, I rarely get it in advance. I usually buy it really last minute… Either on the day of or the week-of is when I grabbed them.”
She said as someone who works in social media, she finds it easier to spot if a reseller is fake or not. Though she doesn’t recommend the tip to buy from a reseller for everyone, she said it does work for her.
“Because I work in social media, I kind of have a little more hindsight in terms of whether some profiles are legitimate, [or] whether some profiles look a little more suspicious,” Mathew said.
She added she’s used other ticket reseller organizations, such as Gametime or StubHub, to buy a spot in the crowd before. Through this method she was able to purchase “really good seats” to Beyonce’s Renaissance tour in 2022 for around $120.
Mathew does warn others to be wary of profiles claiming to resell tickets, especially for dirt-cheap. She advises to make sure the seller was an active social media user prior to selling and wasn’t just created.
She also said to try and avoid sellers who ask for money first.
“[Avoid] people pretending like they have tickets to sell,” Mathew said. “They make you send the money first and then they end up never sending the tickets or they send fake tickets.”
All-in-all, Mathew said even if she misses a concert, most of the time she is ok with it.
“There are quite a few regulars that come to Toronto. So, I’m like, ‘You know what? I’ll catch them next time.’”
