Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour, or how the greatest artist on the planet is going to become a billionaire
Taylor Swift is about to become the richest artist of all time. With the permission of Rihanna, Swift will become the second billionaire singer to date. But with a difference from that of Barbados, that she has made her fortune with her fashion and beauty ventures: Taylor Swift’s income comes from her music. After the ticket sales scandal by the monopolistic Ticketmaster, a disaster that has led to a federal investigation, with those responsible testifying today in Washington before the US Senate, the only thing that seems clear so far is that Taylor Swift will enter near of 620 million dollars (about 550 million euros) after the first batch of concerts, between tickets and merchandising. A first part of the tour that is entirely North American, which will begin in March of this year and end in August, with more than fifty dates.
After taxes and expenses, Swift will have about 450 million euros left in full, to add to his personal fortune, currently estimated at almost 525 million euros. A figure to which must be added the income of midnightshis latest album, which only his record company, Universal, accounted for 3% of his annual income in 2022, and that came out at the end of October: more than 210 million euros, as calculated a few days ago at JP Morgan.
Thus, Swift will not only become the first billionaire singer thanks to music, but possibly multiply that fortune before the end of the year. Swift has yet to announce international dates for Ages, his first world tour since 2018, after not being able to tour his two previous albums due to the pandemic. For the moment, Taylor has already doubled the expected income from that tour, including the concerts outside the United States (they weren’t that many either: 10 out of 58 dates, between the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada and Japan), becoming the female star who the most money I have ever made from a tour. In the absence of knowing if the previous record holder, Madonna (who got 380 million euros in 2008-2009, with his tour Sticky & Sweet) manages to overcome it again with The Celebration Tour.
It doesn’t seem very possible. Madonna sold 600,000 tickets worldwide on the first day, while Taylor was scheduled to sell 1.5 million before Ticketmaster couldn’t keep up. According to figures from the monopolist, none of the five largest tours since Internet sales have existed have seen such demand. The same goes for big sporting events. Today, no one on the entire planet has Swift’s ability to mobilize the masses. In fact, Swift has Ticketmaster to thank in part for taking more money than expected: after the collapse of the first day, the singer, disappointed with the seller and carried away by her fans, announced 17 additional dates so that none of the swifties registered to buy tickets (those 1.5 million who were overwhelmed by 14 million additional unforeseen buyers) were left without seeing it.
