Taylor Swift has had a very big year. Her career-spanning Eras Tour is on pace to become the biggest and most lucrative concert tour in history, and the subsequent concert film set box office records. She’s been streamed on Spotify globally more than any other artist in 2023, and was named Time Magazine‘s Person of the Year. Today, in honor of her birthday, Taylor Swift is releasing The Eras Tour film digitally, so we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our conversation about what made the tour such a juggernaut.

The prestigious Time magazine did not hesitate to praise Taylor Swift’s world tour – Eras Tour.

You don’t have to be a Taylor Swift fan to feel special emotions when the singer’s tour kicks off at the world’s largest stadiums from March.

Eras Tour is a huge scale tour to pay tribute to the golden milestones in Taylor Swift’s illustrious 17-year career, currently 1/3 of the way through.

If you live in one of the 20 locations that Taylor Swift has visited on her journey over the past 5 months, then you have probably witnessed your city receiving huge revenue from hundreds of thousands of attendees from all over. In the world.

And if you don’t, or can’t buy tickets due to high costs or problems with the Ticketmaster ticketing site – then you’ve probably seen clips of this three and a half hour long show on celebrities’ social networks. language.

While there’s a lot to say about this tour – the music, the costumes and the production… the impact of the Eras Tour is most clearly seen in the numbers: a projected gross of 2.2 billion dollars in North American ticket sales alone, hundreds of millions of streams, and a nearly 80% spike in the number of people listening to Taylor’s music just weeks after the tour began.

After 53 performances, the first leg of the Tour in the US ended on August 9, 2023. Initially, Taylor Swift announced that there would only be 27 shows, but later several cities were added to the list of visits: New Orleans, Indianapolis and Toronto. As expected, all noted that this tour helped them boost the local economy.

The Eras Tour is expected to begin its international legs this month, starting with 4 shows in Mexico and continuing to be held across 5 continents until November 2024.

Taylor Swift’s tour is on a completely different level, even when compared to the legendary Rolling Stones who have toured for decades, and famous tour artists like Harry. Styles, Beyoncé or contemporary competitors like Adele – who had a sold-out show in Las Vegas.

There are many reasons behind the unprecedented success of the Eras Tour. Nora Princiotti, editor of The Ringer and co-host of the Every Single Album: Taylor Swift podcast, attributes part of the tour’s success to the sheer depth and popularity of Taylor’s musical repertoire. Swift.

“I don’t know if anyone has ever imagined a tour of this magnitude. She can sing non-stop for 3 and a half hours, continuously from one song to the next.”

In addition, it is impossible not to mention the time factor: Eras Tour becomes the ideal place, the perfect outing for audiences who want to immerse themselves and experience live music after 2 long years of pandemic.

“We are in an experience economy where everyone longing to go out and participate in social events. It’s no wonder people flocked to Taylor’s shows, as if to escape the increasingly digital environment we live in.”

And fans are aware that Taylor Swift is deeply connected to her work in a way that few artists are—writing all her own songs, protecting her music during its boom time. streaming and is currently releasing re-recordings of the record to regain ownership after Scooter Braun and Big Machine Records “blatantly stole” previous studio albums.

All create an unprecedented empire in the world music industry.

Economic and cultural impact of the Eras Tour

Analysts estimate that the Eras Tour will likely surpass the $1 billion mark next March, when Taylor Swift begins touring internationally.

If this prediction is correct, she will achieve the biggest tour milestone in music history, surpassing Elton John’s multi-year farewell tour (which ended earlier this summer and holds the record). Current record is 939 million USD).

The Eras Tour will then continue for another seven months before concluding in November 2024 in Toronto — unless Taylor plans to add additional shows.

But cash flow is more than just net profit. The Eras Tour is expected to generate nearly $5 billion in consumer spending in the United States alone.

Dan Fleetwood, President of AskPro Research and Insights, said in a news release on GlobalNewsWire:

“If Taylor Swift were an economy, she would be bigger than 50 countries. On opening night in Glendale, Ariz., the concert brought in more revenue for local businesses than Super Bowl LVII (held in February at the same stadium).

Using that event as a comparison, Taylor has performed the equivalent of 2 to 3 Super Bowls every weekend for the past 5 months.”

Typically, every $100 spent on live performances generates about $300 in local ancillary spending on other things like hotels, dining and transportation.

But for the Eras Tour, Swifties (Taylor fans) are taking it to the next level, spending around $1,300-$1,500 on things like costumes, souvenirs, dining and travel— contributing to the economy. The local economy reached hundreds of millions of dollars just on the weekend.

The Governor of Illinois credited Taylor Swift with reviving the state’s tourism industry after 3 concerts in Chicago. Taylor was even mentioned in a Fed report, crediting her with boosting the nation’s tourism industry.

The fan enthusiasm was so great that the cities on her tour experienced supply shortages.

For example, Taylor Swift mentioned the “friendship bracelet” in the song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” on her most recent album Midnights. And so tens of thousands of Swifties flocked to search for it. They wore beaded bracelets with the names of her songs to the show and exchanged them with each other.

These bracelets have brought new revenue to local businesses, not only that, other businesses have also reported shortages and out of stock.

The enthusiasm has not diminished even as they face greater economic challenges. Enders Analysis said: “People still spend thousands of dollars to see Taylor Swift even when they have to face a cost of living crisis.”

A national study of concertgoers found that even after spending an average of more than $1,300 per event, 91% of concertgoers said they would keep coming back.

The Eras Tour not only brought economic benefits but also became a cultural phenomenon.

Every city that Taylor Swift has visited during her tour so far has had a special way to welcome her. Minneapolis was renamed “Swiftie-apolis,” Santa Clara, California, made her honorary mayor; The governor of New Jersey named the New Jersey state sandwich after Taylor.

World leaders such as the President of Chile, the mayor of Budapest and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all respectfully invited Taylor to bring the tour to their countries.

More than just show tickets

Wearing beaded bracelets and drawings of the number “13” (Taylor’s favorite number) on their arms, many Swifties attending her shows wanted exclusive tour merchandise.

Thousands of them lined up hours before the show to score Eras Tour collections like $75 hoodies, $55 long-sleeve shirts and $45 T-shirts.

Fans are even demanding the release of more physical versions of Taylor’s albums. “Streaming has taken over the purchase of physical album products, but Taylor Swift is one of the rare artists who still makes a lot of money from vinyl and CDs because they have become collectors’ items,” Enders said. for her fans.”

Taylor Swift released various versions, re-recordings, and bonus versions, motivating fans to collect all of her albums.

For the Midnights album, 4 of the 5 different album covers will create a clock face when combined, while the remaining 1 cover will have additional bonus tracks, making it possible to purchase different versions of the album. is a must for true fans. And some people admitted they bought vinyl versions even though they didn’t own a vinyl player.

Midnights is the best-selling vinyl record of 2022, with 945,000 copies sold, making it the best-selling physical album since 1991. One in every 25 vinyl records sold is an album by Taylor Swift and she is an artist. first artist in history to occupy at least 7 of the top 10 spots on the Vinyl Albums chart.

For her latest re-recorded album coming out in October, “1989” (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift has released multiple special CD and vinyl editions that fans can pre-order on the website mine. Each version has different cover art and accompanying content.