{"id":567,"date":"2024-12-10T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T21:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/kfitzpatrick\/?p=567"},"modified":"2024-12-10T16:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T21:46:23","slug":"the-end-of-an-eras-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmonk.com\/kfitzpatrick\/2024\/12\/10\/the-end-of-an-eras-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of an Era(s Tour)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tech industry, when we talk about folks distributing hundreds of millions of dollars, we are usually talking about funding rounds. Using that for context, one can think of Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras Tour as so financially successful that she was able to distribute $197M (a healthy C round?) in bonuses to her Eras Tour staff.<\/a><\/p>\n

Swift can do this because her Eras Tour<\/a>–which kicked off in March 2023 and wrapped this past Sunday with its final show in Vancouver–grossed over $2 billion<\/a> (as reported by the New York Times–apologies for the paywall). Billboard<\/a> (sans paywall) has some more attention-catching stats including number of tickets sold (over 10 million), and the fact that the Eras Tour grossed over $900 million more<\/i> than the next highest-grossing tour.<\/p>\n

As the Eras Tour wraps, Forbes (yes, that <\/i>Forbes–the business magazine) is tracking reactions<\/a>. Newsweek is arguing that \u201cthe Eras Tour grew the global economy by over $9 billion<\/a>.\u201d NBC News has a nicely curated recap<\/a> of the tour\u2019s better known cultural touchpoints, including the initial ticket presale tech fail, the friendship bracelet phenomenon (more on that later), Swift\u2019s relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce, and the list of albums Swift released (or re-released) during the tour.<\/p>\n

RedMonk, of course, has talked Taylor Swift<\/a> before. Last fall I interviewed Dr. Casey Alane Wilson<\/a>, who is both a Swiftie (a Taylor Swift fan) and professor who studies and teaches Swift\u2019s work. Our conversation covered Swift and technology (including the ticket presale fail and some pretty techie reactions to it), Swift and intellectual property (in case you are wondering why<\/i> she re-recorded all those albums), and even Swift and medievalism (she has an entire album\/Era inspired by Game of Thrones<\/i>). I\u2019m going to drop the video of the interview right here (in case you want to jump right in):<\/p>\n