It’s time to Speak Now about the Taylor Swift Eras tour. The unique concert features Swift performing songs from all ten of her albums. Her sixth tour is her biggest one yet, with 146 concert dates spanning five continents. It started in March 2023 and will end in November 2024. The massive tour has influenced the world culturally, economically, and even politically.
The ticketing process of the tour has become infamous. Ticketmaster, one of the official partners of the Eras Tour, introduced the “verified fans,” process, which worked as a lottery, granting lucky fans a one-time access code to buy tickets during the presale.
Unfortunately, Ticketmaster crashed and sold all their tickets in the March presale due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory
to meet that demand.” Millions of fans were unable to buy tickets to the concert, and they were devastated. Taylor Swift weighed in herself, stating that it was excruciating to see mistakes like this happen. The debacle was taken to a political level when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on competition in the ticketing industry, addressing whether Ticketmaster constitutes a monopoly. The hearing was unique, being the first one where senators were quoting Taylor Swift lyrics as they spoke about consolidation in the market.
Taylor Swift’s first tour following the pandemic has caused a sort of “Swiftmania,” with people going to desperate measures to buy tickets, as many Edgemont students well know. One student wrote, “I signed up eight accounts in order to get a presale code. Once I got the code, I gave it to my mom to buy tickets while I was at school. My mom logged onto ticketmaster and was placed in a 2000+ queue.” Many students said that this was a generally stressful experience. One joked, “It’s like Black Friday but online and Taylor Swift-themed.” 81% of Edgemont students responded that the tickets for the tour were overpriced.
One of the biggest effects of the tour is the economic phenomenon surrounding it. The tour has brought in a projected $2.2 billion in ticket sales from North America and created nearly $5 billion in consumer spending in the U.S. According to Dan Fleetwood, the president of QuestionPro Research and Insight, if Taylor Swift herself were an economy, she would be bigger than that of fifty countries.
Additionally, because people bought tickets to other destinations to view the concert, the cities Swift performed in economically flourished. According to the Edgemont survey, students traveled to destinations from Colorado to Poland to see Swift perform. Hundreds of jobs opened up in each city as the Eras tour came in, increasing employment rates. The tour increased sales for local businesses; concert-goers bought a lot of friendship bracelets, which became a trendy memento of the concert.
When Swift performed in Chicago, the occupancy rate in hotels reached 97%, an all time city high. Minneapolis even temporarily renamed the city Swift-Apolis for the weekend of the concert. Due to these substantial economic effects, countries that didn’t have tour dates scheduled, like Canada, begged Swift to perform.
Another brilliant marketing move by Swift is the new Eras Tour Movie. A full length, professionally filmed version of the concert is being released. While the average amount spent to attend the in-person concert is $1,300, the ticket price for the movie is $19.89 for adults (a clever ode to her fifth album) and $13.13 for children (another clever ode to her favorite number). Certainly, every Swiftie unable to attend the concert is making plans to attend the movie.
The Eras Tour is even sparking academic interest. An academic conference is being held in Melbourne, Australia, just before Swift arrives in February 2024. Its purpose is to discuss Taylor Swift’s cultural and economic impacts.
Edgemont students who attended the concert had glowing reviews. One student said, “It was cathartic, me and my friends spent the whole time screaming and singing our hearts out, I don’t think I will ever experience anything like it again. There was so much energy and passion in the stadium and Taylor put on such an amazing show.” Others said it was one of the best experiences they’ve ever had and they would definitely go again.
This concert craze is unlike any other the world has seen. Yet, it is definitely justified by the surreal quality of the show and the talent of Taylor Swift. Next time she goes on tour, we’ll all have to hope that Ticketmaster is “Ready for It.”
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