9 Things Other Artists Can Learn From Taylor Swift’s Blockbuster Eras Tour

Most tours are routed with one goal in mind: get from the first show on the tour to the last show on the tour as fast as possible, without experiencing any major hiccups or crises on the road. While that strategy allows artists to spend minimal time away from loved ones, it leaves artists few options to pick up more shows when demand exceeds expectations. When Swift first announced the routing for the Eras Tour in November 2022, each stop was scheduled on a weekend in a different city. Not only did her massive production need this much time to load and unload her gigantic show, but it also gave her the flexibility she needed to add shows on weekdays for fans who missed out on tickets when they first went on sale. The strategy allowed Swift to grow her initial 27-date announcement to 52 shows total, nearly doubling the number of fans who could see her on the historic tour. – Dave Brooks

The massive Eras Tour can’t turn on a dime — it takes multiple days and teams of crew members to set up and take down the production in each city it visits. For many Swift fans, that means traveling to a major market hub, with some having to drive hundreds of miles to catch one of her shows. It can be a bit terrifying for an artist — even one as famous as Swift — to put tickets on sale knowing fans will have to travel long distances to attend her concerts, but asking them to commute allows for higher production values and more time spent on crafting mesmerizing sets rather than constantly moving from city to city. This also gives fans a better overall experience at the show, leading to the kind of strong word-of-mouth that allowed the Eras Tour to build up a full head of steam throughout its North American run. – D.B.

Artists of Swift’s size most often go one of three ways with their tour setlists: They either stack them with classic hits and long-proven crowd-pleasers, they put their most recent material front and center, or they toggle awkwardly between old and new. Swift’s innovation with her Eras Tour concept is to treat every (well, nearly every) part of her career with equal (well, almost equal) weight: Not to just load up on Fearless and 1989 smashes or Folklore and Midnights fan favorites, but to essentially recreate her entire career onstage — and bring fans along for the journey.

Again, this isn’t something that an artist with just a handful of albums or hits to their credit could easily emulate. But for artists of a certain size, stature and (most importantly) longevity, going the Eras route is now a proven way to allow fans to not only remember the songs they love but to truly relive them, one album at a time. And for a now-generation-spanning artist like Swift, it offers the extra bonus of making sure fans who weren’t along for the whole ride still feel catered to. Pre-teens in attendance can scream along to “Anti-Hero” and “Cruel Summer” while their older siblings (or parents) wait patiently for their turn to do the same with “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.” – Andrew Unterberger

Even non-fans were doubtless bombarded by news of Swift’s tour stops across the United States earlier this year, given that every last one of them seemed to generate a fresh wave of headlines. Part of the reason for this was Swift and her team’s savvy way of engineering viral moments at each performance. These included recurring bits — including Swift giving her “22” fedora to a young fan at every stop (including Bianka Bryant, daughter of the late Kobe Bryant, as well as Selena Gomez‘s sister, Gracie) and adding two new surprise songs to the setlist every night (more on that below). Swift also sprinkled bigger one-off moments throughout, including special guest appearances from stars like Ice Spice, Maren Morris and Taylor Lautner (to premiere the music video for her Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) track “I Can See You”) and shriek-inducing reveals of the release dates for her re-recorded Speak Now and 1989 albums. While few stars can command headlines the way Swift does, other high-profile artists would do well to study her strategy of keeping the Eras Tour in the news cycle. – Chris Eggertsen

Swift proved just how much of a “mastermind” she really is while planning her Eras Tour. One of the best examples is the genius inclusion of two surprise songs each and every night — one performed acoustically on guitar and the other on piano. The benefits of this are plentiful. Despite devouring footage on social media, fans can show up at each show with the guarantee that they will see and hear something new, something included just for them. Additionally, with each passing night, fans could also update the list of what songs were left, creating a guessing game between each show. And finally, there are the headlines. There’s no better way to guarantee that every show will make news than by doing something new for each one. Considering the endurance needed for her Eras Tour, for which each set typically lasts three hours, the fact that Swift decided to further challenge herself was no easy feat. But hopefully, the deafening screams in support of each surprise song — and the online virality of each clip — was a decent reward. – Lyndsey Havens

There’s nothing better than show-specific merch. Sure, it creates a sense of urgency that results in incredibly long lines at the venue. But, much like the friendship bracelet frenzy that has become a key part of Swift’s shows, owning a piece of merch that could only have been purchased at a specific show helps foster the communal aspect that has made the Eras Tour so much fun to dissect. Plus, at the end of the day, who doesn’t love to say: “I was there.” In this case, the merch does the talking. – L.H.

Most artists still not even old enough to run for president would blanch at the idea of performing (or expecting fans to sit through) a setlist with a runtime nearly as long as Lawrence of Arabia. But Swift correctly gauged that after a near-half-decade absence from touring — and with four entirely new albums and four major re-recordings to draw from since her last global trek — appetite for her live experience was high enough that going the double-VHS duration would not only be tolerated, but celebrated, by her rabid fanbase.

It’s not something that every artist could get away with, of course: Many touring artists, big ones included, don’t even have catalogs that could last three and a half hours if you stacked them front to back. But if you’re already playing stadiums — and particularly if you’re charging the kind of prices that could otherwise be spent on week-long vacations — you may as well make sure fans leave feeling they got their money’s worth. And chances are, you’re not gonna see many folks leaving their Eras Tour date early to try to beat the traffic. – A.U.

While they say there’s no such thing as bad press, good press is undeniable — and for Swift, her acts of kindness often result in great press. Though she made news for the generous $100,000 bonuses she gave to each one of the 50 Eras Tour truck drivers, in addition to bonuses for her band, dancers, caterers, lighting and sound technicians, and other crew members, it’s been said that the superstar has always looked out for her team. However, the eye-opening $5 million sum for her drivers alone could help set a precedent that caring for your own should always be a priority — within the limits of one’s own budget, of course. – L.H.

Probably no other artist alive could pull off the kind of blockbuster opening that Swift managed with her Eras Tour concert film, which debuted to a jaw-dropping $92.8 million on its debut weekend last month and has grossed a total of $TK million in theaters to date. And due to a savvy distribution deal Swift’s parents reportedly struck with AMC Theatres — after talks with several Hollywood studios reportedly broke down — Swift will receive an unprecedented cut of the film’s profits. It’s the kind of deal that could well shake up the concert film model, leading other music stars to go around the middle man (a.k.a. traditional studios and distributors) for their own concert films and keep a greater percentage of their earnings as a result. Clearly, Swift isn’t content to blaze new trails in music alone; she’s now shaking up the movie business as well. – C.E.