“Taylor Swift Tix,” her newly unveiled promo with Ticketmaster, requires you to register on TaylorSwift.com to put you on a wait list for tickets. You can then pre-order the album, share her pitch on social media.
You can buy the album at different retailers and get a boost each time, with a limit of 13 items to boost your chances (or spend the same amount on StubHub—not that we’re endorsing such a gambit). And if you buy a CD or a T-shirt—or multiple albums and merch—from her site, each buy ups you in the queue for tickets. But it doesn’t actually guarantee that you’ll get them.
In essence, Swift’s strategy leaves open the option for a bundle at some point closer to release date without cannibalizing her Target exclusive or iTunes now.
This entire strategy for selling tickets, and boosting album sales, is fascinating to me. The gamification of music. It’s kinda brilliant.