美国国家公共电台 NPR--Congress has gotten involved in the Ticketmaster-Taylor Swift fiasco

Congress has gotten involved in the Ticketmaster-Taylor Swift fiasco

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Anne Steele of The Wall Street Journal about Ticketmaster bungling² the ticket release for Swift's new tour. Questions are raised about the company's grip on the industry.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Millions of fans love Taylor Swift, and it's safe to say that millions do not love Ticketmaster after it stopped the release of early tickets for Swift's new stadium tour.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

People were kept waiting online for hours, only to come away with nothing. And then Ticketmaster canceled sales to the general public, which were supposed to happen today. This is a subject on which Americans want government intervention³, apparently⁴. Some state attorneys general are investigating. And Senator Amy Klobuchar, who heads a Senate subcommittee on consumer and antitrust issues, says she's going to hold hearings.

FADEL: Anne Steele is a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, and she's been covering this. Good morning, Anne.

ANNE STEELE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: OK, Anne. So it's not exactly a surprise that a whole lot of people wanted Taylor Swift tickets. So why wasn't Ticketmaster ready?

STEELE: Definitely, definitely not a surprise. This is one of the most hotly anticipated tours, particularly coming out of the pandemic. Taylor Swift is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. You know, it's been five years and five albums since her last tour. And, you know, she signed up for this program with Ticketmaster in order to try to get her tickets to the fans during these early presales. But in this case, you know, they handed out 3 1/2 million fan codes and many more fans than that tried to come to Ticketmaster on Tuesday. And not just fans without codes, but also bots as well, and scalpers and that type of thing. So when all was said and done, she had a record-breaking day - over 2 million tickets were sold on Tuesday alone for the first presale for fans. But many, many more millions of fans were trying to get tickets and upset that they couldn't.

FADEL: And a lot of people were angry. And as we heard Steve say, this whole fiasco is getting the attention of lawmakers, attorneys general. Is this because of Ticketmaster's monopoly on ticket sales? What's angering everyone?

STEELE: That is what lawmakers and officials are saying. You know, they're saying that Ticketmaster's power in the ticketing market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically would make companies compete and improve their technology and that type of thing - so Ticketmaster's position as the largest ticketing company that has lots of exclusive ticketing contract with most of the venues⁵ in the country, and then also as a unit of Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, with really little competition in the live event space. You know, as Senator Amy Klobuchar said, that can result in dramatic service failures. And consumers are the ones that end up paying the price and not getting tickets.

FADEL: Has Taylor Swift said anything about this?

STEELE: She has not, but we'll wait to see what she's going to do because the general on-sale to the public for Friday - it was called off, and we think there might be some tickets left. We're not sure how many. There's obviously many more fans than tickets available, but we think there's still some tickets left and those are going to have to be distributed somehow. So we await the plan from the mastermind that is Taylor Swift.

FADEL: I wonder if anyone at Ticketmaster is singing, it's me, hey, I'm the problem, it's me. Are they saying anything? And what are Swift's fans supposed to do about getting tickets?

STEELE: So Ticketmaster is not saying that this is a problem internally. They're saying this is a situation of unprecedented⁶ demand. And, you know, the system was overwhelmed. But, you know, in their mind, it's a record-breaking day. So we'll have to see what happens going forward.

FADEL: That's Anne Steele with The Wall Street Journal. Thanks, Anne.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 bungling   

adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成

参考例句：

• You can't do a thing without bungling it. 你做事总是笨手笨脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• 'Enough, too,' retorted George. 'We'll all swing and sundry for your bungling.' “还不够吗？”乔治反问道，“就因为你乱指挥，我们都得荡秋千，被日头晒干。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。