Taylor Swift, pop darling and a marketer’s wet dream, is using her goddess-like status to pinch yet more money from her fans’ pockets.

Taylor Swift has teamed up with Ticketmaster – why’s that? To offer up special promotions to fans? To make sure that every fan has a chance at buying a ticket? No it’s to make sure that you’re giving her enough money before you can give her some more.

Their new program is called ‘Taylor Swift TIX by Ticketmaster Verified Fan” which sounds alright, as it verifies your humanity to prevents botting and scalpers. But that’s just a front (not necessarily true but this all seems shady) as it’s “method” of making sure you’re a real TayTay fan is to verify that you’ve bought something from her website. Through the system you must go to tickets.taylorswift.com, log in to your Ticketmaster account and purchase “merchandise items”.

But wait, you don’t even need to do that to buy tickets, it simply “improve[s] your position in line to purchase for Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert tour”. Each purchase gives you a code that can be used to “boost your activity score”. So you aren’t actually required to do it, just encouraged to buy more so that you have a better chance of getting tickets. You aren’t even guaranteed a ticket.

Whilst many fans will probably willingly go along with this charade, thanks to mummy and daddy’s wallets, many of Swift’s more on-the-ball followers have spoken out. Quotes from Twitter include:

“Given that a large section of her fans will be kids badgering their parents, this is disgraceful”

“tbh i don’t think the “Taylor Swift Tix” thing is very fair.  whoever spends the most money is held as a priority for tickets.“

“Ok honestly this is so annoying. I understand it’ll help eliminate bots but I am a die hard why should I have to buy expensive merch…”

If you’re a die-hard Taylor Swift fan with little to no self-respect, or you just want to laugh/cry at the state of the music industry, here’s the guide to getting Swift’s special loyalty points:

1. Go to the Taylor Swift Official Store located at store.taylorswift.com.

2. Purchase merchandise items using the same e-mail address linked to your Ticketmaster account to “boost your activity score.”

3. Between August 25th, 2017 and November 9th, 2017, pre-order Taylor Swift’s Reputation.  Again, you’ll need to use the same e-mail address linked to your Ticketmaster account to “boost your activity score.”  Once the album arrives at your physical address, “look inside for an additional unique code that is printed inside.”  Then, go to tickets.taylorswift.com, log right in to your Verified Fan account, and type in the unique Fan Code.  Submit the code to receive your “Boost.”

4. Between November 10th, 2017 and November 27th, 2017, if you haven’t pre-ordered Reputation, then purchase the album.  Again, Ticketmaster stresses that using “the same email address as your Ticketmaster.com account will automatically boost your activity score.”  Once the album arrives at your physical address, look for the unique code printed inside.  Follow the same instructions as the previous step to register your code.

5. You can also order the physical album online at Target.com and at Walmart.com.  If you won’t order the physical album, Ticketmaster has several steps you can take to order the album digitally through iTunes.

6. Go to Target.com.  Pre-order Taylor Swift’s reputation to receive an Order ID.  You’ll receive the Order ID via an e-mail from Target.com.  Next, go to tickets.taylorswift.com, login to your Verified Fan account, and submit the Order ID to get your Boost.  When the album arrives at your physical address, you’ll receive an additional Fan Code printed inside.  Enter your Fan Code on the site to receive a Boost.

7. Go to Walmart.com.  As with Target.com, pre-order Taylor Swift’s reputation to receive an Order ID.  You’ll receive the Order ID via an e-mail from Walmart.com.  Once the album arrives by mail, you’ll receive an additional Fan Code printed inside.  Enter your Fan Code on the site to receive a Boost.

8. Go to iTunes.  Pre-order or order Taylor Swift’s reputation by November 26th, 2017 to receive a Fan Code.  You’ll receive the Fan Code through iTunes.  Then, go to tickets.taylorswift.com, login to your Verified Fan account, and submit the code to get your Boost.  You can only submit one iTunes Boost per registration.  If you cancel or return your order, Ticketmaster will delete your Boost.