Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has dominated the internet since it began early this year. The tour has stood out among countless other tours currently being headlined by popular artists like Luke Combs, Ed Sheeran, and even Coldplay Band.
Even though we acknowledge that all artists have their fan base, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Taylor Swift has proven dominant in the music industry and recently, won more fans from the NFL to Swifties due to her romance with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
We’ve all got to admit. The Eras Tour is living up to its name. It has all the records showing that this is Taylor Swift’s musical Era and no one can take the spotlight from her. The internet is littered with records of how much the Eras Tour has gapped other tours.
From revenue generated, to attendance records broken and also, an economic impact like we’ve seen in the USA after her ticket sales crashed Ticketmaster’s website.
But that’s not all about Taylor Swift that we found out because of the Eras Tour. Yes, Taylor Swift is a gifted songwriter and singer. She has proven this time without numbers, and we can now gladly refer to the Eras Tour as factual proof of this greatness.
Music aside, another thing that the Eras Tour has revealed about Taylor Swift is the fact that she is a remarkable business-minded person. The Eras Tour only started in March this year, and already, it has placed Taylor Swift on Billboard’s list of top tour earners after generating close to $2 billion.
Extensive research shows that making such an amount is not completely dependent on the sales of tickets, or merchandise. It is greatly dependent on decisions made by the artist involved, and we believe this is part of what contributed to Taylor’s wealth in 2023.
We will be looking at some of the critical decisions that Taylor Swift made while preparing for the Eras Tour, and also amidst the Eras Tour that made her accumulate the wealth she has now. Beforehand, know that you can jump on Taylor Swift tickets from a valid marketplace, any time before the 3rd leg of the tour begins next year.
Leaving Big Machine Records
There’s probably no other decision that serves as the foundation of Taylor’s current global wealth, aside from deciding to leave her former record label, Big Machine Records after her contract ended back in 2018, and we’ll tell you why.
Immediately after leaving Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift negotiated a contract with her current record label, Republic Records, and the terms of the contract are what are building her current wealth.
With Republic Records, Taylor gets to keep 50% or more of the royalties of her music. The case was completely different with Big Machine Records, where she was offered around 10% to 15%.
Calculating 50% of the revenue generated from the sale of Taylor’s re-recorded version of “1989,” only, which was 1.359 million copies in the first week of its availability, you’ll realize that Taylor will be walking away with millions of dollars compared to if she was still with Big Machine Records.
To think that Taylor has released 4 studio albums and 4 rerecorded versions of her previous albums under Big Machine Records sends a chill down the spine because of how much she stands to gain if she receives 50% from royalties of all 8 albums.
These re-recorded songs are what collectively make up the set list of the Eras Tour making the whole event even more interesting.
Additionally, with Republic Records, any profit made from Spotify through Taylor’s work will be shared among every contributor including Taylor Swift, which also places her on the upper side compared to when she was with Big Machine Records.
It is evident that leaving Big Machine Records contributed to Taylor’s success on the Eras Tour, but that’s not all. Read on.
Re-Recording 4 of Her Previous Albums
We believe one of the major reasons why Taylor Swift went on to re-record versions of her previous albums so she could have rights to her masters was to be able to use any of her songs whenever she felt like it.
This explains why she confidently has re-recorded versions of her songs on the set list of the Eras Tour and her audience, the Swifties have been nothing but supportive.
Usually, there would be a fine or some sort of agreement before Taylor would be able to perform songs from her 1989 album under Big Machine Records like “Blank Space.” But the fact that she now has the re-recorded version, countered every possibility of that happening allowing her to reserve all rights to her songs under the re-recorded albums.
Additionally, this also means that Taylor Swift has fair rights to royalties of any form of advertisement that is done with any of the songs on her re-recorded albums, rather than songs from her previous albums under Big Machine Records.
Circumventing Conventional Hollywood Distribution System
We’ve got to admit that it took some boldness for Taylor Swift to bypass Hollywood’s usual distribution system to make a direct deal with AMC when she released “The Eras Tour Movie.”
For those who don’t know, AMC (American Multi-Cinema, Inc.) is currently one of the “largest movie theatre chains” in the world, and usually, people don’t just make deals with them, they go through conventional distribution systems, like the ones in Hollywood that Taylor decided to cut-off of her profits when preparing to release “The Eras Tour Movie” to the public.
This deal created a way for Taylor to earn more as per profit than she would have, had she gone through due process for the release of “The Eras Tour Movie.”
Tickets for the Eras Tour movie were sold for £19.89 in the UK. With a record of $249.6 million in worldwide sales, you can imagine how much Taylor has personally made, adding to her billionaire status.
Also, this just proves that greatness recognizes greatness since AMC did not hesitate in partnering with Taylor Swift and releasing the Eras Tour Movie in theatres back on the 13th of October 2023.
Owning the Rights to Streaming Platforms
Taylor Swift also “retains the rights to license to a streaming service,” as reported by Billboard. This became known after Swift made streaming the Eras Tour Movie an option for her fans.
Extensively, this means that any revenue generated exclusively from streamers of the Eras Tour Movie belongs to Taylor Swift.
A lot of critics have criticized the 34-year-old American singer because of how she has monetized the Eras Tour. But they forget it costs a lot to organize a tour as big as the Eras Tour.
Most of these decisions that Taylor took have all contributed to generating the revenue the Eras Tour is now known for and future possibilities might include much more than is currently listed.
So far, Taylor has broken revenue records even from her previous tours, as well as outshines former top-listers in the ranking of artists to host the most expensive tours.
The Eras Tour is expected to end next year on December 8th, 2024. Taylor Swift might decide to extend the duration of the tour through to 2025, but that is a fantasy we hope to feel in reality.
