Taylor Swift’s tour could have brought in nearly $2 billion in revenue. She is not the only star to weigh very heavily.
With the post-pandemic resumption of world tours that fill stadiums, like those of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, or the income still generated by deceased legends like the Beatles, Elvis Presley or Bob Marley, music stars are panicking the economic meters .
Taylor Swift Tour Movie Breaks Records Before It’s Even Released
The film about Taylor Swift’s triumphant tour, which will be screened from Friday October 13 in 100 countries, had already exceeded $100 million in pre-sales of cinema tickets worldwide a week before its release, a record for a feature-length concert film, according to theater operator AMC. A performance worthy of the American pop star’s world tour, The Eras Tour, which could exceed $1 billion in revenue for the first time in history when it ends at the end of 2024, according to American estimates. The professional magazine Pollstar even put forward the figure of 1.9 billion dollars.
At the beginning of September, the president of the New York Fed, John Williams, estimated that the“Taylor Swift effect” has stimulated the American economy in recent months, “because people spent on the concert, the hotel, all of that was a big phenomenon.” The Fed’s Beige Book already mentioned, at the beginning of July, hotel revenues in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) boosted in May by the singer’s fans. According to economist Maria Psyllou of Britain’s University of Birmingham, the six concerts in Los Angeles in August resulted in a $320 million increase in GDP for the county.
Beyoncé would reinforce inflation in Sweden
The first two dates of Beyoncé’s world tour, in Stockholm, were even cited by one economist as having contributed to higher than expected inflation in May for the country. Beyond the high cost of concert tickets, Michael Grahn of Danske Bank estimated that the influx of fans could explain the rise in hotel and restaurant prices.
According to the specialized site Billboard Boxscore, the Renaissance World Tour of the American artist, which ended on October 1, should total revenues of around $560 million, making it the most lucrative female tour in history. It had already grossed $461 million at the end of August, surpassing Madonna and her Sticky and Sweet Tour from 2008-2009. The record is currently held by Elton John, whose farewell tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road (2018-2023) grossed over $910 million.
BTS brings billions of dollars to South Korea
In ten years of existence, the K-pop boy band BTS, currently on hiatus and several members of which are doing their compulsory military service, has brought billions of dollars to the South Korean economy. In December 2018, the Hyundai Research Institute estimated that the first entirely South Korean group to reach the top of the American and British charts brought its country more than $3.6 billion in annual economic benefits.
In 2022, the Korea Institute of Culture and Tourism estimated the economic impact for the country of each BTS concert at 1.22 trillion won (more than $900 million).
The Beatles still attract fans to Liverpool
More than 50 years after the breakup of the Beatles, Liverpool, birthplace of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, continues to attract nostalgic fans of the quartet. Cavern Club concert hall, Penny Lane or the former Strawberry Fields orphanage, museums, restaurants, souvenir shops… Tourism linked to the Beatles is estimated at 120 million pounds per year (nearly 150 million dollars), according to the municipal Council.
Other places in the world capitalize on their artists: the American city of Memphis (Tennessee), with Elvis Presley’s former property, Graceland, remains an important place of pilgrimage for fans of the rock’n’ legend roll, and Jamaica maintains the memory of reggae giant Bob Marley. The Abba group, for its part, contributed to making Sweden the third largest exporter of music in the world, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.