Swift’s ‘Verified Fan’ initiative draws ire

On the surface, pop star Taylor Swift’s ticketing announcement seems simple enough — exciting, even.

“Taylor Swift is committed to getting tickets into the hands of fans. NOT scalpers or bots,” reads the statement on Ticketmaster’s site. “So she’s collaborating with Ticketmaster .VerifiedFan to create an exclusive program to help YOU get the best access to tickets in North America, in a really fun way.”

The blowback on the socalled Verified Fan initiative, though, has been swift and not-always fun, with fans and industry onlookers debating the merits of a relatively new Ticketmaster strategy that aims to recognize Swift’s fans for their devotion — and their willingness to open their wallets.

The program uses a metric called “boost activities” that rewards fans for interacting with the artist’s work, say watching her latest video on YouTube or purchasing her album or merchandise. More boosts will equal a higher place in a virtual line — but not necessarily a guaranteed shot — at buying tickets, and the more money one spends on Swift’s music and products, the better place in line one can secure.

The 10-month-old Verified Fan program was used in conjunction with Bruce Springsteen’s impending run of shows on Broadway in New York, but without asking fans to become viral marketers or buy Boss-branded wares. Pop star Harry Styles has also tapped the system.

For Springsteen tickets, fans simply registered with Ticketmaster and the program and hoped they received a text message that deemed them “verified.” Those verified, at the “sole discretion” of Ticketmaster, are then “randomly selected” to receive a code via text message to purchase tickets, according to Ticketmaster emails and fine print explaining the process.

The experiment worked, said David Marcus, the executive vice president and head of music at Ticketmaster: Fewer than 3 percent of Springsteen available tickets for those shows have ended up on the secondary market, Marcus said.

“For a tour like that and a venue like that, with a limited inventory, it is a massive testament to the Verified Fan engine,” Marcus said. He estimates that before Verified Fan, “more than 50 percent” of the tickets would have landed on the secondary market.

In Swift’s case, though, those with the supposed best chance of purchasing tickets to her upcoming tour in support of her Nov. 10 album “Reputation” are those who most fully participate in the Swift marketing machinery, often by engaging in social media activities or purchasing items.

A person familiar with the initiative but not authorized to speak on the record stressed that participating in non-monetary ways throughout the span of the campaign would essentially result in the same amount of boost points.

Dave Brooks, executive editor of the concert-industry trade magazine Amplify, estimated that demand for Swift tickets is at five to 10 times the amount of available seats.

Such an approach is the latest battle in what the ticketing company said is its war against those who resell tickets through secondary ticket sellers such as StubHub, one that has stretched back decades. It comes after earlier innovations proved unable to stem the flow of tickets to scalpers, who employ computer bots to score the best seats.