Taylor Swift's Ticketmaster scam is why she's capitalism's favorite pop star

The Reputation tour is coming and it'll be tough to get tickets—unless you spend $60 on a snake ring.

A partnership between Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster is drawing scrutiny for forcing fans to spend money on merch and albums to get a shot at buying tickets.

A post on Jezebel first pointed out the complex arrangement. The partnership builds on a longstanding practice of bundling albums with tickets to boost album sales. This time, it's not just agreeing to buy an album with the purchase of a floor ticket. Fans instead are prompted to pre-order Reputation, shop Reputation merch (including the already infamous gold snake ring), and buy Reputation about a dozen more times from the Taylor Swift store, Walmart, Target, and iTunes to unlock access to tickets.

And then return on a daily basis to complete other tasks in hopes of staying near the front of the line.

The more things you buy, the better your chance of scoring a ticket. You can also boost your chances with the free moves of watching the lyrics video for "Look What You Made Me Do," registering for the Taylor Swift mailing list, and referring friends to the program, but those accomplishments don't earn you as much "boost" as buying a sweatshirt.

A progress bar keeps track of how close you are to unlocking tickets, but there are no exact points to measure how far you have left to go. Your progress can slow down, too, depending on how many people try out the months-long program, Ticketmaster says in the fine print.

"Your standing may change as more fans join the line and participate in boost activities. Keep checking back for new boost activities you can do everyday," the website states.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

From Taylor's perspective, it's smart. Taylor Swift superfans probably want a lot of this stuff anyway, and they'll be encouraged to order if buying it now boosts their chances at a meet-and-greet or nosebleed seats.

The move is a shrewd one—unsurprising coming from one of America's top-selling artists, who sold almost 1.3 million albums in the week after 1989 dropped.

For fans who aren't trying to spend money just for the chance to spend more money, though, the arrangement is a little off-putting. Ticketmaster hasn't had a partnership exactly like this before.

“We worked closely with Taylor Swift to craft a unique approach to our Verified Fan program that rewards her fans with access to the best tickets first,” David Marcus, executive vice president and head of music for Ticketmaster North America, said in a statement. “By removing bots and scalpers from the equation, and adding a series of fun activities to help registrants boost their spot in line through our official Verified Fan Activity Meter, we’re able to ensure that tickets make it into the hands of Taylor's most avid fans, at fan-friendly prices.”

Ticketmaster declined to answer further questions about the program.

Swift and Ticketmaster frame the program as a way to ward off scalpers and bots.

"Taylor Swift is committed to getting tickets into the hands of fans...NOT scalpers or bots," the welcome page says. "So she’s collaborating with Ticketmaster #VerifiedFan to create an exclusive program to help YOU get the best access to tickets in North America, in a really fun way."

Bots probably can't buy endless quantities of merch, but neither can most fans.

The program is open until Nov. 28, so you have a few months to save up. Maybe between now and then Swift and Ticketmaster will add more "fun ways" to move up in the ticket line without spending money.

Reputation drops Nov. 10.