Hayley Williams tries to crush scalpers and bots with new ticket sale strategy

Hayley Williams is trying to make sure her fans don’t experience ego death in the Ticketmaster queue. Next year, the Paramore singer will embark on her first-ever solo tour in support of her new album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party (she was supposed to hit the road in 2020, but… you know), but fans won’t buy tickets through the overtly exploitative channels that have become all too normalized in the industry. “I’ve had countless conversations with my team, and they’ve spent countless spent countless hours trying to find the best solution for fans to be able to buy tickets,” Williams wrote in an Instagram story today, admitting, “It’s been tough (to say the least), and unfortunately, there’s just no way to guarantee that zero tickets get scalped. But we’re doing our best.”

Williams’ solution is a 24-hour presale registration window, during which prospective (human!) ticket buyers must validate both their phone number and email address to receive a unique presale code. (It’s a similar system to the one Radiohead used for the same purpose earlier this year.) Fans can only register once, and the code does not guarantee the ability to buy tickets during the presale window, which will still be first-come, first-served. It only provides access to the sale window in the first place. In an additional bid to combat the greedy resale market, buyers are limited to four tickets per show, for up to three shows. After the presale, Williams will utilize a “Face Value Exchange” program, through which fans will have the option to “buy and sell tickets at the original price paid.” That means ticket transfer will be disabled everywhere but New York City and Chicago (where Williams says state laws prevent them from doing so) as well as Amsterdam, to further hinder these types of sellers. 

“I know this won’t be perfect. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to buy tickets to see the show, but unfortunately, it’s a broken and convoluted system,” Williams wrote. “My team and I are doing everything we can, and I am hopeful that the process we’ve put into place will get as many tickets into the hands of my fans (at face value) as possible.”

Presale registration is open on Williams’ website. If you’re a fan, you may want to go ahead and do that now; there’s “no guarantee” that tickets will be available outside of the presale, the singer wrote. For the lucky fans that do get in, Williams promises “we’ll dance, scream, and cry together.” Check out the full tour schedule below:

3/28—Atlanta, GA—Tabernacle

3/31—Toronto, ON—Massey Hall

4/3—Boston, MA—Citizens House of Blues

4/4—Boston, MA—Citizens House of Blues

4/6—Philadelphia, PA—Franklin Music Hall