Taylor Swift Ticketmaster crash draws ire on Capitol Hill

Mum Nancy Abulmagd spent hours in a virtual queue, behind thousands of other people, trying to score seats for her 11-year-old daughter and friends, only to have the website crash repeatedly and eventually turn her away empty-handed.

And Nancy was one of the lucky ones - she had won a lottery that allowed "verified fans" to participate in a pre-sale four days before the purchases open to everyone.

"I got so close three or four times and the website broke. It was agonising," the 41-year-old, who lives in New Jersey, said. "The experience was really deflating. It messed with your emotions and sucked up your whole day."

Nancy was hoping to score Taylor Swift tickets for her 11-year-old daughter and friends

Ticketmaster, the company selling the tickets, has said the problems are down to "historically unprecedented demand" for the singer, who first burst on the scene in 2006 and has supplied a steady stream of hits exploring fame and romantic entanglements.

Her latest album, Midnights, has topped charts around the world.

Millions of Swifties, as her fans are known, vied for tickets for her 52-city US tour in the pre-sale and hundreds of thousands secured seats, Ticketmaster said.

The company says the pre-sale system is intended to help prevent ticket touts - known as scalpers in the US - and bots from scooping up seats.

But the glitches in the process have reignited anger at the firm, which has long faced complaints that it abuses its power over the industry.

In an episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight earlier this year, British comedian John Oliver described Ticketmaster as "one of the most hated companies on earth" - blaming it for the high prices, exorbitant fees and scarce availability that confront those hoping to attend concerts and other events.

"You're kind of at their mercy," said Nancy, adding that the company could have better organised the sales given that such high demand for Taylor Swift tickets was foreseeable.

Pearl Jam aired concerns about Ticketmaster's role as the major ticket seller back in the 1990s.

The company's power has only grown since then. In 2010, it purchased Live Nation, which runs many of the country's event venues and has an artist management business.

US Democratic lawmakers, who have called for that merger to be reversed, chimed in again amid the chaos of the Taylor Swift pre-sale.

"Ticketmaster's excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today's @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem," wrote congressman David Cicilline, who oversees the House committee on competition and anti-trust. "It's no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly."