taylor swift
Page: 14
When Taylor Swift sells the remaining 170,000 tickets for her 52-date Eras tour later this month, the U.S. trek will have generated $591 million in sales, Billboard estimates. The average ticket price is $215, according to concert business sources.
This total will make Swift the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time, according to the Billboard Boxscore chart, topping current title holder Madonna whose Sticky & Sweet Tour (of 2008 and 2009) currently holds the No. 1 slot with a gross of $407 million. Swift’s U.S. tour will also put her in fourth place on the all-time Top Tours chart, which is currently led by Ed Sheeran, whose 2017-2019 Divide shows grossed a total of $776.2 million.
Normally with a tour of this scale, artists share some revenue with a promoter and an agent. In this case, Swift will presumably keep a higher share of revenue, because she’s not represented by one of the major booking agencies and because independent promoter Louis Messina is booking the entire tour and providing some of the services an agency normally would.
Other companies involved in the tour won’t do as well as they normally do, either. Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, which handled sales for the tour, normally allow ticket buyers to sell tickets on their secondary markets and take a percentage of that revenue. (Ticketmaster handled sales for 47 shows, while SeatGeek sold seats for the remaining five.) But Swift would not allow the companies who handled primary ticket sales to also sell secondary market tickets. As well, Swift asked Ticketmaster to help make sure tickets went to fans, rather than scalpers, and the company says it used its Verified Fan technology to reduce the number of tickets on resale sites by 75%.
That’s an expensive decision. Ticketmaster makes a much higher margin on resale tickets than primary tickets, since it keeps all of the fees it charges — typically 10% of the sale price for the seller and another 20% for the buyer. The company still charges a 25% service fee for all primary ticket sales. However, it only keeps a small percentage of that money, $3.50 to $5 per ticket, which for this tour will come out to about $7.6 million to $10.8 million. The rest of the fees normally go to venues and promoters. (Ticketmaster, like most ticketing companies, also charges 2.75% for credit card processing, of which it keeps about 10% and pays the rest to credit card companies. The Eras tour generated approximately $13.8 million in these fees, Billboard estimates.) All told, by the time Ticketmaster sells the remaining 170,000 tickets, the company’s total revenue will add up to between $9 million and $12.9 million.
Ticketmaster’s efforts to fight scalpers means that relatively few tickets wound up on the secondary market – but the ones that did are expensive. A month after the presale, on Dec. 14, the average resale ticket price was $1,425, according to TiqIQ, which tracks secondary ticket sales across multiple marketplaces.
TiqIQ estimates that about 1,100 resale tickets are available per show, out of an average of about 50,000. At an average price of $1,425, that would work out to about $1.6 million worth of tickets per show on the secondary market. Assuming that Ticketmaster would have captured about 15%–20% of those purchases, based on 2018 estimates by the United States Government Accountability Office, that means that the company could have brought in an additional $12.5 million to $16.4 million in revenue, of which Ticketmaster would have kept $3.8 million to $5 million in fees, if Swift had allowed the company to sell tickets on its own secondary market.
SeatGeek, which has a 12% share of the secondary market according to its April earnings report, agreed to turn off resale for the five shows it ticketed on the tour, but not the 47 shows sold by Ticketmaster. (Ticketmaster blocked secondary sales for the SeatGeek shows.) That means SeatGeek could make about $9 million from the Ticketmaster shows it lists on its secondary market, although it missed out on about $960,000 in revenue for not allowing secondary sales on the five shows for which it initially sold tickets.
Working with Swift has benefits beyond the financial, of course. In addition to the prestige of working with an artist of that stature — and enduring the embarrassment of the flubs around the Nov. 15 presale — Ticketmaster will presumably see an increase in app downloads and usage of its digital ticket platform, which has been a priority for the company.
Sadie Sink is a Swiftie through and through — and not just because she starred in Taylor Swift‘s All Too Well: The Short Film.
In a new interview with Elle, the Stranger Things actress revealed that she listened to Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, and her top tracks are “Labyrinth,” “Sweet Nothing,” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid.” The third one on the list, she explained, is “track five – it’s always the best one.”
Sink was hand-picked by Swift to star in the epic “All Too Well” short film alongside Dylan O’Brien, chronicling seven chapters of a couple’s relationship. The 10-minute, expanded version of the fan-favorite track was featured on Red (Taylor’s Version), released in November 2021. “Of course it’s such an iconic song and the way she brought that to life on screen was really special so it was an honor to be a part of it,” Sink previously told Glamour.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Swift’s recent album, Midnights, spent five nonconsecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, and was recently dethroned by Metro Boomin’s superstar-filled album Heroes & Villains on the Dec. 17-dated chart.
The last Swift album with more weeks at No. 1 is Folklore, which notched eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2020. Since then, she’s claimed four more chart-topping albums: Evermore (four weeks at No. 1 in 2020-21), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks, 2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (one week in 2021) and Midnights (five weeks so far).
Few artists have earned the chart hits, fan support and critical acclaim that Taylor Swift enjoys. Emerging as a country singer-songwriter on her 2006 self-titled debut before branching out into the worlds of pop music, indie folk and beyond, Swift has notched eight No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100, inspired a dedicated legion of Swifties and won the Grammy for album of the year three times — for Fearless, 1989 and Folklore; She is just the fourth person, and the first woman, to win that prestigious Grammy three times.
In 2019, Swift was honored as Billboard‘s first ever Woman of the Decade at our 2019 Women In Music event, not just for her commercial success, but for her commitment to protecting creative rights, music education, literacy programs, cancer research, disaster relief and the Time’s Up initiative.
Here are the 40 biggest Taylor Swift songs, based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 (through the chart dated December 17, 2022).
Taylor Swift opened up Monday (Dec. 12) about how her approach to creativity has changed as she moves into the next decade of her career.
The topic came up when the superstar sat down with acclaimed director Martin McDonagh as part of Variety‘s annual Directors on Directors series. “Do you feel like your songwriting is different now? Even if you’re talking about a heartbreak song, are you different in writing now as opposed to how you were when you were 22?” the Banshees of Inisherin filmmaker asked Swift, comparing All Too Well: The Short Film to the original album cut from 2012’s Red.
“Yes. I definitely feel more free to create now,” the pop star-turned-director replied. “And I’m making more albums at a more rapid pace than I ever did before, because I think the more art you create, hopefully the less pressure you put on yourself. It’s just a phase I’m in right now. And everybody’s different. There are people who put an album out every five years and it’s brilliant and that’s the way they work. And I have full respect for that. But I’m happier when I’m making things more often.”
Swift also shed light during the discussion on how she tackled making the Grammy-nominated short film for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, and how it might impact her upcoming directorial debut for Searchlight Pictures.
“Every aspect of my job as a singer has affected the way that I am as a director,” the “Anti-Hero” singer said. “I’ve occasionally been in a film for very short periods of time. I really want someone to feel comfortable. If they want to be able to look at the monitor, or they want to know how it’s set up, they should be able to. But I think it’s helpful when people know what story it is they’re telling. I’ve been part of things where you didn’t know the script, and no one knew what the story was.
“And so as much as I like to be secretive about projects I’m making,” she concluded, “you have to trust the people that you’re making something with to let them know this is exactly why this matters.”
Read Swift’s full Directors on Directors conversation with McDonagh here.
Taylor Swift has reached an agreement with two songwriters to end a five-year long copyright lawsuit claiming she stole the lyrics to “Shake It Off” from an earlier song about “playas” and “haters,” resolving one of the music industry’s biggest legal battles without a climactic trial or ruling.
In a joint filing made on Monday in California federal court, attorneys for both Swift and her accusers – songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler – asked a judge for an order “dismissing this action in its entirety.” Before the deal, a trial had been scheduled to kick off in January.
The public filings did not include any specific terms of the apparent settlement, like whether any money exchanged or songwriting credits would be changed. Attorneys for both sides and a rep for Swift did not immediately return requests for comment.
The agreement means a sudden end for a blockbuster case that seemed headed toward the next landmark ruling on music copyrights. Following legal battles over Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” the case against Swift posed fundamental questions about the limits of copyright protection, with her lawyers arguing that the accusers were trying to “cheat the public domain” by monopolizing basic lyrical phrases.
Hall and Butler first sued way back in 2017, claiming Swift stole her lyrics to “Shake It Off” from their “Playas Gon’ Play,” a song released by R&B group 3LW in 2001. That was no small accusation, given the song in question: “Shake It Off” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2014 and ultimately spent 50 weeks on the chart, a mega-hit even for one of music’s biggest stars.
In Hall and Butler’s song, the line was “playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate”; in Swift’s track, she sings, “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” In their complaint, the duo said Swift’s lyric was clearly copied from their song.
In the years since, Swift’s attorneys repeatedly pushed to dismiss the case, arguing that a short snippet of lyrics about “players” and “haters” was not creative or unique enough to be covered by copyrights. They cited more than a dozen earlier songs that had used similar phrases, including 1997’s “Playa Hater” by Notorious B.I.G and 1999’s “Don’t Hate the Player” by Ice-T.
Swift initially won a decision in 2018 dismissing the case on those grounds, with a federal judge ruling that Hall and Butler’s lyrics were not protected because popular culture in 2001 had had been “heavily steeped in the concepts of players, haters, and player haters.” But an appeals court later overruled that decision, and a judge ruled last year that the case would need to be decided by a jury trial.
“Even though there are some noticeable differences between the works, there are also significant similarities in word usage and sequence/structure,” the judge wrote at the time.
More recently, Swift’s team again asked the judge to dismiss the case, this time making a new argument: That documents turned over during the case had revealed that Hall and Butler voluntarily signed away their right to file the lawsuit in the first place.
In an August filing, Swift’s lawyers said the documents proved that Hall and Butler had granted their music publishers the exclusive rights to bring an infringement lawsuit over the song, meaning they lacked the legal standing to do so. Her lawyers said the pair had even emailed their publishers – Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group, respectively – asking for permission to sue, but that both companies had refused the request.
“After their music publishers refused to assign to plaintiffs the claim they assert in this action, their manager unsuccessfully lobbied a United States Congressman to get a House sub-committee to intervene,” Swift’s lawyers alleged in the filing.
That motion was still pending when Monday’s settlement was filed.
Days after Taylor Swift revealed that she identifies with Game of Thrones‘ Arya Stark and gushed over the series’ director Guillermo Del Toro, the filmmaker returned the love for the Grammy-winning superstar.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“She’s a very accomplished director, she’s incredibly articulate and deep about what she’s trying to do—and what she will do,” he told W Magazine when asked if he’s a Swiftie. “I have the greatest admiration for her; we had one of the most stimulating and gratifying conversations.”
Del Toro added that the duo have many “common interests,” including fairy tales. “Her interest in fable and myth and the origins of fairy tale is quite deep,” he explained. “I gave her a few books that I thought would be interesting for her—among them, very importantly, a book that was useful for me in creating Pan’s Labyrinth called The Science of Fairy Tales, which codifies and talks about fairy tale lore.”
For The Hollywood Reporter‘s 2022 Women In Entertainment Power 100, Swift revealed that she’d like to trade places with Del Toro. “Imagine having that imagination, that visual vocabulary and that astonishing body of work,” she said of the Shape of Water filmmaker. “To have such a diverse storytelling range but to somehow put your distinctive artistic fingerprint on every film. And yet, it feels like he’s still so curious and enthusiastic about his work. I can only imagine that a day in his mind would be fascinating.”
Westeros isn’t so different from the world of pop. The top slot on the Billboard charts is just as sought-after as the Iron Throne — though artists use their music as weapons instead of, well, actual weapons.
Back in 2016, ahead of the season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, we decided to see if we could draw a direct line between the citizens of the Seven Kingdoms and our very own pop royalty. These people are playing very different games, but often using similar strategies. We published animated illustrations reimagining six of the biggest musicians in the world as six of the biggest characters on the wildly popular show, which came to an end in 2019 after eight seasons.
This week (Dec. 7), our gallery of GIFs became relevant once again, when Taylor Swift told The Hollywood Reporter for their Women in Entertainment Power 100 issue which Thrones character she most identifies with: Arya Stark. “I realize I don’t know how to use a sword and I’ve never had to rise up from near death to go on an epic revenge mission,” the pop star quipped. “But I have been in the music industry for over 15 years, so …”
When we published the original gallery, we had Swift pegged as the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen — of course, that was before (spoiler alert) Dany burned it all down in the final season. Also since the gallery was posted, Swift has spoken of her kinship with the Stark daughters (Sansa too) and how they partially inspired her 2017 album reputation. “So much of my imagination was spent on Game of Thrones,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “At the time, I was making reputation and I didn’t talk about it in interviews, so I didn’t reveal that a lot of the songs were influenced by the show.”
But Swift isn’t our only pop star featured in the gallery. Below, find animated illustrations of pop stars as their kindred Game of Thrones characters. (And maybe for our next round, we’ll include musicians as House of the Dragon standouts.)
This gallery was originally published in 2016.
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Dec. 17): As holiday titles and heavy hitters vie for the top of the December charts, new albums from a star hip-hop producer and a couple of K-pop hitmakers join in the merriment.
Metro Boomin, Heroes & Villains (Boominati Worldwide/Republic): You might have thought the big album releases were starting to wind down for 2022, but Metro Boomin begs to differ. The Atlanta-via-St. Louis producer has been one of the biggest behind-the-scenes names in hip-hop for a decade, and new album Heroes & Villains shows off his Rolodex, with enough star collaborators — Future, Young Thug, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Gunna, even narrator Morgan Freeman — to justify an accompanying short film.
After dominating streaming charts on Spotify and Apple Music over the weekend, the set appears due for a big debut on the Billboard 200 — perhaps even one to challenge the producer’s Republic label-mate Taylor Swift and her five-week No. 1 Midnights for the chart’s top spot. (He hit No. 1 in 2020, with 21 Savage full-length team up Savage Mode II .) Though its consumption is mostly digital, Metro did release a CD version of Heroes & Villains to select physical retailers — and also debuted a deluxe “Heroes Version” of the album to streamers and digital retail on Monday, adding instrumental versions of each track.
RM, Indigo (Big Hit): Singer/songwriter/rapper RM released his solo debut, Indigo, on Friday, a varied album that features marquee R&B names Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak, as well as veteran Korean hitmakers Tablo and Park Ji-yoon. BTS, the world-conquering group which RM previously achieved stardom with, scored five No. 1 albums over the past half-decade, from 2018’s Love Yourself: Tear to this June’s Proof.
His chart bow for Indigo this week will have to come without help from a physical release, as the set’s CD packages — which often move big numbers for Korea’s biggest pop acts — are not due until Dec. 16. Earlier this year, RM’s bandmate J-Hope entered the Billboard 200 at No. 17 with his own solo album debut Jack in the Box, also only from the support of a streaming and digital retail version of his album. (Jack has yet to be released on CD in the U.S.)
ITZY, Cheshire (JYP Entertainment/Dreamus/Republic): Korean pop quintet ITZY hit the Billboard 200’s top 10 for the first time in July with their sixth EP Checkmate. This week, they aim to return to the top tier with sixth EP, Cheshire, featuring advance English-language single “Boys Like You” — though technically it’s already in its second week of release, since the streaming and digital retail version of the set dropped last Wednesday (Nov. 30).
Cheshire’s chart performance will depend mostly on sales of its physical editions, which went on sale Friday. Like many K-pop releases, the CD came out in collectible deluxe packages (13 total, including versions exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Target and the group’s official webstore), each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (such as photocards and a poster).
IN THE MIX
Backstreet Boys, A Very Backstreet Christmas (K-BAHN/BMG): The classic boy band’s first holiday set made its Billboard 200 debut back in October, but should surge on the chart this week following its Dec. 2 vinyl debut (and the approaching season). It’s only reached No. 17 so far, making this week its best chance of keeping alive Backstreet Boys‘ double-digit streak of consecutive top 10 albums.
Arcangel, Sr. Santos (Rimas Entertainment): Veteran reggaetón and Latin trap hitmaker Arcangel made a splashy return last Wednesday alongside perhaps the biggest male pop star on the planet with the Bad Bunny collab “La Jumpa.” That song should give Sr. Santos, the single’s 18-track parent album released on Friday — which also features appearances from Myke Towers, De La Ghetto and Bizarrap — a nice head start in consumption for this week.
Ivan Cornejo, Dañado (Manzana Records): Regional Mexican star Ivan Cornejo charted at No. 149 on the Billboard 200 in June with sophomore set Dañado, which has since climbed as high as No. 64 thanks to its stellar streaming performance. The seven-track mini-album received a deluxe reissue on Friday, with three new bonus tracks, which should give it a big boost from its current chart perch of No. 145.
Madame Tussauds Dubai has a new “Mastermind” added to their gallery. The company revealed on Tuesday (Dec. 6) that its wax figure of Taylor Swift is the latest celebrity to join its star-studded lineup.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
According to Time Out Dubai, the figure marks the first international addition to Madame Tussauds Dubai since it opened in October 2021. The handcrafted statue featured Swift in a Folklore-style low chignon bun, holding an acoustic guitar. The wax figure is dressed in a red sequined turtleneck top tucked into a pair of high waisted khaki pants.
The new Swift wax figure comes a little more than a month after the Grammy-winning superstar unveiled her 10th studio album, Midnights. The album logs a fifth week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 10). The last Swift album with more weeks at No. 1 is Folklore, which notched eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2020. Since then, she’s claimed four more chart-topping albums: Evermore (four weeks at No. 1 in 2020-21), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks, 2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (one week in 2021) and Midnights (five weeks so far).
And while the wax figure comes at a celebratory time in Swift’s career, fans had mixed feelings about the new installation at Madame Tussauds, unsure if the new piece bears a proper resemblance to the “Anti-Hero” singer. See some reactions below.
Why is it so difficult to get Taylor’s wax figures to actually look like her? I mean this one’s not bad compared to others but still.— Conny | Midnight sharp 🕰 (@connychiwa_) December 6, 2022
somebody stop please them from making wax figures😭— Ananya (TV) (@ANANYAPANDEY151) December 6, 2022
This story is part of Billboard‘s The Year in Touring package — read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
The touring industry’s comeback from the pandemic brought record revenues and ticket sales for the world’s largest promoter, Live Nation, No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Promoters ranking.
Driven by mega tours by Bad Bunny (who had the highest grossing tour of the year), the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Weeknd, Live Nation grossed $4.19 billion and sold 42.3 million tickets from 4,789 in the 2022 tracking period, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore covering a Nov. 1, 2021 – Oct. 31, 2022, collection period.
Live Nation’s reported gross was more than the combined $3.9 billion reported by the promoters ranked from Nos. 2-10.
While Live Nation benefitted from strong demand for arena shows, Cowen and Company analyst Stephen Glagola says Live Nation’s global distribution scale, customizable platform for event managers and its ability to finance artists add to their competitive edge.
“The $9 billion in artists’ fees paid this year is one of their biggest advantages,” Glagola tells Billboard, referencing money Live Nation collects through ticketing and other business areas that it returns to the artist.
As a promoter, Live Nation also gives artists financial guarantees as much as 10 months in advance of events. While that makes Live Nation vulnerable to sharp declines in attendance due to sudden events like a COVID-19 outbreak, it is also a persuasive tool to lock in the biggest artists’ tours.
Live Nation had three of the top 10-highest grossing tours of 2022: Bad Bunny was No. 1, grossing $373.5 million; Red Hot Chili Peppers were No. 6, grossing $177 million; and The Weeknd was No. 10, with $131.1 million.
While promotion is considered a low-margin business for Live Nation, Glagola says, it “drives the flywheel” of the company’s overall economics.
“By getting more artists to promote and tour, it drives some of their higher margin, ancillary revenue, such as food and beverage and hospitality within their owned and operated venues, and the expansion of ticketing,” says Glagola.
On the company’s most recent earnings call, Live Nation executives said the busy 2023 touring season is fueling high demand for live music, despite ongoing questions about the potential impact high inflation and tighter consumer budgets may have on ticket sales.
So far, the company is seeing surging demand.
“Ticket sales for shows in 2023 are pacing even stronger than they were heading into 2022, up double-digits year-over-year, excluding sales from rescheduled shows,” said Rapino. Through the third quarter, Ticketmaster sold over 115 million tickets, up 37% from the same period in 2019. (Live Nation uses 2019 as the most recent year comparable to just its current business.)
Contrary to many industries, supply fuels demand, analysts at Cowen said.
“It has to do with the fact that Taylor Swift only comes on tour every few years,” Glagola says. “When she comes through your hometown you want to see her.”
However, popularity has its pitfalls. Live Nation faces lawsuits and a U.S. Senate hearing next year related to the Nov. 15 Ticketmaster pre-sale for Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour, which saw widespread service delays and website crashes as hundreds of thousands of fans tried — and many failed — to buy tickets.