Last week, Mitski announced some North American tour dates in support of her latest album The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We. Tickets sold out quickly, and many were bought up by scalpers and bots. Fans were not happy with the Ticketmaster process, a familiar experience. Yesterday, Mitski posted a statement in response to the ticket-buying frustrations, urging fans not to buy from scalpers.

“It breaks my heart to think of you paying exorbitant amounts of money to scalpers when they have nothing to do with the shows or the efforts to make them happen,” she wrote. “I would rather play an empty house than have you give your money to them.”

Here’s the full message:

Hello!

Thank you so much to all of you who bought tickets to the 2024 shows so far! Ticket-buying is incredibly difficult these days, and I truly appreciate what you all go through to come to our concerts.

In our efforts to make the show experience extra special, we found beautiful, seated theaters to play over multiple nights, rather than one giant venue per city, in the hopes of offering a more intimate experience to the audience. But I know that this choice creates a feeling of scarcity, and I apologize for any frustration this causes.

In the midst of all this, the fact that scalpers buy up tickets to resell at unbelievable prices is infuriating! So I wanted to reach out with information that may hopefully alleviate some of the confusion and distress these scalpers cause.

1. My team is regularly working with the show promoters and venues to cancel tickets that are identified as scalpers or bots. Any tickets that are cancelled will be offered to fans on the waitlist. So if you were unable to secure a ticket to the show of your choice, please join the waitlist for the show through my website. The tickets we cancel from scalpers will be exclusively offered to people on the waitlist.

2. Many of the listings on resale sites are speculative, and some tickets may be listed multiple times on multiple sites. So scalpers may not have as many tickets as it appears (though they still have too many!) and some so-called tickets may not be valid.

3. This is only the first North American leg of our tour for 2024! There are more shows planned for the year, in North America and elsewhere in the world. This is by no means the last of our concerts.

PLEASE DON’T BUY FROM SCALPERS & RESELLERS! It breaks my heart to think of you paying exorbitant amounts of money to scalpers when they have nothing to do with the shows or the efforts to make them happen. I would rather play an empty house than have you give your money to them.

I’m so grateful to you all for buying tickets, coming to shows, and supporting the music. It means everything to me, and I’m so excited to see you all on the road!

Thank you again and again (and sorry for the essay^, haha),

Mitski