After missing out on Sabrina Carpenter tickets (if you have an extra ticket, help a girl out!), I swore I would come out of the next Ticketmaster war victorious. When my favorite pop star, Ariana Grande, announced her next tour, I honed in on all my shopping editor expertise and learned from my past mistakes. After many losses, I think I finally cracked the code.
While Ariana Grande's upcoming Eternal Sunshine tour sold out within the hour in the presale and general sale, I secured 10 tickets. Before you yell at me for being "Greedy" (OG fans will know that one!), my friends, coworkers, and I each are going to only one concert—so I'm not reselling any of them. Unfortunately, many other fans did not luck out, and the only popularly known option left is to succumb to the price of resellers who jacked up the price to make a profit.
So if you have a concert, show, or game coming up, here are my tips that I've learned over the years and through my experience as a shopping editor to snag the tickets you want. And if you still miss out, I also have advice for getting tickets to a show after it sells out for a reasonable price.
Sign up for the presale
This one is the most obvious of all the tips I'll share, but it's also the most important. In case you didn't know, a presale helps you lock in tickets before the general sale. Signing up for a presale is typically free, and all it means is signing into your Ticketmaster account and going to the artist's sign-up page to choose the show you'd like to join the presale for.
Presales have been a thing for years, but these days, tickets pretty much sell out before the general sale rolls around. For example, Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour sold out in the presale, as well as Ariana Grande's Eternal Sunshine tour. So, your best bet to securing tickets is signing up for presale for as many concert dates with as many accounts as possible.
The more people trying for tickets in the presale, the better chances you have of at least one account getting to the front of the queue. For the Eternal Sunshine tour, I asked nearly everyone I know to sign up for the presale on their Ticketmaster accounts. With each account, you were allowed to sign up for three concert dates. When it was time to buy tickets, I signed into all of the accounts and joined the waiting rooms for each date.
Editor's note: Be sure not to join a waiting room on the same date with the same account on multiple tabs or devices. Ticketmaster will flag this and kick you out on both tabs. Remember, stick with one tab per concert date you signed up for in the presale.
Discuss budgets and seating preferences before the sale
All too many times, I've heard stories of people missing out on tickets because they were waiting for a confirmation from friends. Discussing a game plan beforehand cuts out wasted time that can mean the difference between getting or losing seats.
For Ariana's Eternal Sunshine tour, one of my friends had a strict budget of $200, which everyone in the group agreed upon. I also confirmed that everyone was okay with nosebleeds in any section. Once I got into the show, I was able to click seats and quickly add them to the cart without waiting for a response via text.
Fill out your credit card information beforehand
Once you select your tickets, half the battle is done. Ticketmaster will hold your tickets in your shopping cart for a select amount of time. There is a countdown on the screen, but it's usually around 10 minutes. Work smart and make sure your current credit card information is already filled out. All you'll have to do is enter the CVV (the 3-digit number on the back of the card), select whether you want insurance for your tickets, and confirm your purchase.
Most importantly, make sure to update the card information if you get a new one (I've made this mistake), and that it's a card that will not decline. You can add more than one card to your account if you are worried about any issues.
Use multiple devices or a large desktop
Multiple screens or a larger screen make it easier to watch your spot in the queue. If you only have one tab to look at, then I suggest using a laptop. I've heard rumors that you get put in the front of the queue with a mobile device, but I've always gotten in faster with my laptop. It's also much easier to click through seating options on a laptop than on an iPhone, in my opinion. However, you can try both methods by joining the presale on multiple devices with different accounts.
Personally, I like to use a large screen to look at multiple tabs at once on my laptop. Once the queue begins, I check which tabs are the closest in the queue, and then I focus my attention on those tabs.
Whatever you do, do NOT refresh your page
I know, I know, it's tempting when the screen freezes in between the waiting room and queue pages. But refreshing the page will kick you out of the queue, and you'll be pushed all the way to the back of the line.
The only time I've heard refreshing helped was when people were frozen in the queue for The Eras Tour for multiple hours (but that was a rare phenomenon). You're much better off staying patient and letting Ticketmaster load. You also do not want to refresh the page while looking at the map or in the checkout, or else you'll be kicked out of the sale entirely.
Play the waiting room game
This one may not make as much sense, but stay with me here. I've heard rumors that joining the waiting room merely seconds before the queue opens pushes you to the front of the queue. I've also heard people claim that joining the waiting room as early as possible is the best way to get pushed to the front of the queue (some even swear by locking their laptop screen and leaving it open for hours).
At the end of the day, this could all be random, but I do think it's better to join at varying times from your different accounts rather than joining each waiting room on every tab all within the same minute.
For the Eternal Sunshine tour, I joined the waiting room as early as possible with one account and at the last minute with another account. With another account, I joined randomly, leading up to the presale. The random join was the account that got through the fastest.
Try hunting down a presale code
A presale code is a special password that lets you buy tickets before they go on sale to everyone else. Some artists only give presale codes to a select number of fans who signed up for the presale, while other concerts provide one for everyone who signed up for the presale. If an artist is only giving limited presale codes, you should still sign up with as many accounts as possible. Here are some more tips:
Buy artists' merch
This isn't a super common practice, but some musicians offer presale codes to fans who previously purchased merchandise from their official website. I recommend getting the CD or vinyl of the newest album. This is most likely the album the artist is touring, and gives you a chance at a more selective presale code, if the artist chooses to do one.
While I didn't get a presale code for The Eras Tour from the Ticketmaster lotto system, I did receive a presale code for buying the Midnights CD ahead of time.
Check social media and sign up for email newsletters
Without Instagram, I'm unsure if I would know about most concert-ticket sales. I follow all my favorite artists to make sure I never miss a tour announcement and that I know when to sign up for the presale.
Email newsletters are another great reminder to sign up for presales for concerts. Plus, emails have served as a great reminder for my friend and me to buy tickets for the U.S. Open the day they go on sale.
Stream, stream, stream
One regret I have is missing an email from Noah Kahan's team providing me with a presale code for being a top listener on Spotify. So, be sure to stream your favorite artists' songs on Spotify and Apple Music. And learn from my mistakes and always check your email, especially if it's an artist that consistently makes your Top 5 in your Spotify Wrapped.
What to do if you don't get tickets
Check out the venue's box office
If you don't have any luck with Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, or LiveNation, don't succumb to high resale prices just yet. I recommend heading to the venue to ask if there are any tickets available to buy at the box office. It's not a guarantee, but it doesn't hurt to try.
Never underestimate a radio contest
Listen, me and radio contests have some beef. When I lost the Ticketmaster war for Noah Kahan at Madison Square Garden, I tried calling into a radio contest. I was the 99th caller, so I was one call off from winning. However, my mom phoned into a radio contest for Ariana Grande's tour and won two free tickets (thank you, mom!).
Check fan accounts
Tons of fan accounts on X (previously known as Twitter) help coordinate reselling extra tickets for reasonable prices to real fans. Search around for accounts that are doing this for the tour you want to attend, and sign up for alerts for when they post.
Wait for the artist to potentially add more dates
Lastly, if you didn't get tickets to your favorite artist, don't lose all hope. I was devastated when I couldn't get tickets to Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, and Taylor Swift in the past. Now, I've seen all three of them perform (I even saw Olivia and Noah sing together!).
Artists sometimes extend their tours with another leg to big cities like NYC and LA if there's a large demand, giveaways occur throughout the months leading up to the shows, and you may have a chance of luck with someone offering an extra ticket (like I said, I'm still on the hunt for Sabrina Carpenter tickets...).
Hopefully, more artists will follow Noah Kahan's lead after he created a lottery system for a charity concert that did not allow the option to resell your ticket. But for now, I wish you all luck in your next Ticketmaster battle.
