Call it “Swiftonomics” or “Taylornomics,” the 33-year-old American superstar is not only smashing music industry records with her Eras tour, but also boosting the economy and getting involved in new labor compensation expectations. “She’s a very talented performer, but a smart businesswoman at the same time,” says Alicia Modestino, associate professor of public policy and urban affairs and economics at Northeastern University.
On her latest tour, Taylor Swift is tapping into the spending power of women who have experienced increased wages coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and are eager to splurge on travel and seeing their idol live. The singer-songwriter, named by Forbes the second-richest self-made woman in the U.S. music industry, will play more than 140 concerts across five continents in 2023 and 2024.
It is already obvious, however, that Swift’s tour is smashing all sorts of records, Modestino says, in terms of ticket prices, crowds of fans and revenues. On average, almost 54,000 fans attended each concert on the first American leg of the tour, which concluded Aug. 9 in Inglewood, California. The average ticket price fans paid on Ticketmaster was $254, while resale prices soared to thousands and tens thousands of dollars.
