Thanks to pent-up demand, sky-high ticket prices, and an almost-insatiable desire for live experiences, Taylor Swift or Beyoncé may put on the first-ever tour to gross a billion dollars. And it’s a tide that lifts all boats, with concert-going all around bringing in record sales. After Covid, communal events are clearly undergoing a renaissance.
It’s a toss-up for which superstar will bring live music into the ten-figure club. Taylor Swift makes around $10 million a night on her Eras tour, which Bloomberg says will net her around $600 million with her current schedule… but she hasn’t booked any overseas dates yet.
Beyoncé is raking in about $7.5 million per show on her Renaissance tour, and demand is so high (she hasn’t toured since 2016) that she can keep adding tours to rack up revenue.
Sir Elton John currently tops the table for the highest grossing tour of all time after racking up $800 million after the latest leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show that's been going on for a couple of years already. Sir Elton, 75, has outdone Ed Sheeran who previously held the record. According to Billboard Boxscore, the American music analytics company, Sir Elton is on track to reach $1 billion in ticket sales after the 2023 leg of his tour concludes.
Even without John, Swift and Beyoncé, it’s shaping up to be a great year for live music.
Several artists are selling out stadiums and arenas worldwide, including Madonna, The Weeknd, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, and Bruce Springsteen. And like it or not, many acts are doing so by selling tickets at sky-high prices - the thinking being that charging more will ward off opportunistic scalpers.
Oh, and just to give you a sense of the scope of a stadium sellout: they can hold anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 people. Imagine doing that for 50 nights.
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