With their world tour, country pop star Taylor Swift and ‘Queen Bey’ are among dozens of mega stars who have hit the road again to meet high demand for live music after cancellations and postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19.
Will a tour pass the billion-dollar mark in revenue? Between Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, the summer of 2023 sees the return of the big shows that fill the stadiums, despite the discontent around the inflation of ticket prices. “I have never seen so many artists on stage at the same time, in the same space”, says Stacy Merida, a professor at American University who studies the music industry. From Pink to Coldplay, from Bruce Springsteen to Drake, without forgetting SZA and The Weeknd, the stadiums are filling up, in the United States and around the world, promising the year 2023 to break records.
Elton John in front of Ed Sheeran
Madonna, a pioneer of contemporary tours with strong sets and costumes, was to start a new one in mid-July but she had to postpone it for health reasons. Consequently, it’s Taylor Swift, 33, who sees the billion-dollar mark in revenue within reach with the 106 dates – at this point – of the Eras Tour. Observers promise similar success for Beyoncé, who begins the North American leg of her World Renaissance Tour.
The record so far belongs to Elton John, whose tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road, which began in 2018 and ended on July 8 in Stockholm, has grossed $910 million as of June 18, according to specialist site Billboard Boxscore. Before him, pop singer Ed Sheeran hit $776 million with his tour divide (2017-2019). But where Sheeran tickets averaged $100 according to Pollstar.com, a basic ticket to a Beyoncé or Taylor Swift concert costs at least twice as much.
Beyoncé and inflation
Entertainment company Live Nation, which merged with ticketing site Ticketmaster in 2010, says it has already sold more than 100 million tickets in 2023, more than for all of 2019. “In a world that has almost fully reopened, it is clear that concerts remain a priority for fans,” Live Nation said in its latest published results. The two dates of Beyoncé’s show in May in Stockholm have even been cited by an economist as an inflation factor for the whole country.
But with the rise in demand comes growing discontent around the dominance of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. For years, concert fans have complained about hidden fees, skyrocketing ticket costs, and shrinking supply because of pre-sales. A subject returned to the table after the chaos around ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour, which forced Ticketmaster to have to explain itself to the United States Congress over alleged anti-competitive practices.
Two-speed music industry
“Integrated vertical monopoly really has a lot of ripple effects in terms of price,” says Andrew Leff, a music industry veteran who teaches at the University of Southern California. “If you’re Ticketmaster, and you can charge whatever you want, you don’t have competition, and there’s demand for Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, it’s the game of supply and demand”, he told AFP. “They can charge whatever they want, and that’s what they do.” But according to him, the boom in concerts does not necessarily benefit everyone, especially small groups. “There are really two music industries”, he notes: “the music industry of the 1% and the music industry of the 99%” others.
The story is known: tours are expensive, but it is a lifeline for artists whose royalties from streaming remain low. But the post-pandemic catch-up is pushing up demand and prices on everything from room rentals to buses. Last fall, independent artist Santigold was one of the first to speak out about these difficulties, and to cancel her tour, explaining that she could not “just not to make it work”. Main causes, inflation and competition in a saturated market.