Don’t you hate it when your favorite artist announces they are going on tour but trying to get tickets seems impossible? Ticketmaster has been a pain forever, but recently it seems that it has gotten worse, especially trying to fight against bots. Buying concert tickets has become less fun and a hundred times more stressful. Want some tricks that can help ease the stress during those times? Here are four of the tips and tricks I learned from my buying experiences on Ticketmaster!
- Use multiple devices
-
This first trick is one of the most important ones when securing tickets! Whether you’re trying during a general on-sale or presale, it is so important to use multiple devices. Since your place in the queue is ultimately random, having multiple devices will allow you to have a better spot in the queue with at least one device. Gather whoever you are going with and have each person get in the queue to see which number is the lowest and try for the tickets on that account. I’ve done that before and found it especially helpful for bigger artists like Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. To sort of go along with this, if an artist is having a verified fan presale, make sure to have your friends and family sign up for you as well as a backup plan in case you are not selected.
- Don’t leave the map page
-
This second tip has saved me one too many times and I cannot stress how helpful this trick has been when purchasing tickets. When you are let out of the queue on Ticketmaster you are brought to a screen that looks like a map where you can begin your ticket selection. The map will sometimes not be highlighted as blue in sections (showing available tickets). Although it seems sold out, do not exit the screen and give up. Ticketmaster likes to periodically release tickets at random, if you stay on the empty map screen tickets might pop up. The only time I have ever exited a Ticketmaster screen is when I see the prices on seats being placed with platinum pricing or when the map pages say the show is sold out.
- Be quick!
-
When you exit the queue page and are placed on the map screen you are battling thousands of other people to purchase tickets. This is why it is so important to be quick with your actions. This includes planning out where you want your seats beforehand and deciding on a price limit. Usually, you can get an estimate of prices while scrolling through X (Twitter), although note that you should take that with a grain of salt as fees can be a little unexpected. To continue with this, make sure to save your card information on Ticketmaster before going to purchase tickets or entering any queues. I’ve seen many lose out on the tickets in their carts because the timer ran out since you only have a limited amount of time to complete the purchase from when the second tickets are added to your cart.
- Use a computer
-
The last tip I want to stress is the importance of prioritizing the use of a computer or a tablet instead of a phone to buy tickets. From my experience, phones tend to glitch out more, whether it is on the Ticketmaster website or app. In addition, when using a computer, especially for seated venues, you can see individual seats on the map more easily than when using a phone. Adding to that, it is easier to select tickets which again comes down to the speed of the entire process.
Whether you are a first-time Ticketmaster user or a long-time user, I hope these tips help aid you in seeing your favorite artist. Remember to go in expecting the unexpected, you never know what might happen with Ticketmaster.
There are going to be times in which you fail to secure tickets even if you use these tricks. Note that it is completely fine you weren’t able to get tickets, it does not always mean you won’t get to attend the show. Second, there are alternate ways to get tickets, even if Ticketmaster says the show is sold out. Some of these methods include Ticketmaster releasing tickets closer to show dates (make sure to check Ticketmaster a lot!), buying from someone on X (be careful of scammers), and resale sites that offer 100% money back if you don’t get your tickets such as Vivid Seats, Seat Geek, and StubHub.