The Eras Tour

The Eras Tour (stylized as Taylor Swift The Eras Tour) is the upcoming sixth headlining concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Having not toured for her studio albums ''Lover'' (2019), ''Folklore'' (2020), and ''Evermore'' (2020) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift will embark on the Eras Tour in support of all of her albums, including her latest, ''Midnights'' (2022). It is her second all-stadium tour, after the 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour. The U.S. leg is set to commence on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and end on August 9, 2023, in Inglewood, California. Swift described the tour's concept as a "journey through all of my musical eras".

Media outlets described demand for tickets to the Eras Tour as "unprecedented" and "astronomical", with 3.5 million people registering for Ticketmaster's presale program for the U.S. leg. The company's website crashed on November 15 immediately after the presale commenced, but 2.4 million tickets to the tour were sold that day, breaking the all-time record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day. Nevertheless, Ticketmaster was met with controversy and widespread criticism. ''Billboard'' reported that The Eras Tour grossed over $554 million from its presale alone, surpassing Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008–09) to become the highest-grossing tour ever by a female act.

Background and development

In support of her sixth studio album, ''Reputation'' (2017), Taylor Swift embarked on the Reputation Stadium Tour, her fifth concert tour, in 2018. It broke the record for the highest grossing U.S. tour in history. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Swift cancelled her scheduled sixth concert tour, then titled Lover Fest, which was planned to support her seventh studio album, ''Lover'' (2019). Without touring since 2018, she released three studio albums— ''Folklore'' (2020), ''Evermore'' (2020), and ''Midnights'' (2022). She additionally released two re-recorded albums in 2021—''Fearless (Taylor's Version)'' and '' Red (Taylor's Version)''.

In the days leading up to the release of ''Midnights'', on October 18, 2022, Swift's United Kingdom website indirectly confirmed a forthcoming concert tour. Pre-ordering ''Midnights'' on the UK store resulted in "special presale code access for forthcoming and yet-to-be-announced Taylor Swift UK show dates." On ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' on October 24, Swift stated that she "should o on tour and that "when it's time, willdo it". She confirmed that a tour would happen "soonish" at '' The Graham Norton Show'' on October 28.

On November 1, 2022, Swift announced on ''Good Morning America'' and through her social media accounts that her revamped sixth concert tour would be called the Eras Tour. She described it as "a journey through the musical eras of ercareer". It marks her first concert tour in five years. Its U.S. leg, which initially consisted of 27 dates across 20 cities, will start on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and conclude on August 9, 2023, in Inglewood, California. The opening acts for the U.S. leg of the tour are Paramore, Haim, Phoebe Bridgers, Beabadoobee, Girl in Red, Muna, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn, each two of whom share a date. Following popular demand, on November 4, eight extra U.S. dates were added to existing cities, bringing the total number of concerts to 35. High demand prompted 17 more shows to be added the following week, making the Eras Tour the biggest U.S. tour of Swift's career, with 52 dates, surpassing her preceding Reputation Stadium Tour (38 dates); all cities part of the Eras Tour enjoy two or more shows following the additions. International dates are to be announced later. ''Billboard'' described the tour's announcement as "the most chaos-inducing tour announcement of the decade."

In December 2022, ''Financial Times'' and ''Rolling Stone'' reported that the cryptocurrency exchange company FTX was previously in negotiations with Swift, offering her a US$100 million sponsorship deal, including a partnership for the Eras Tour and offering tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and that Swift denied the deal subsequently. FTX became defunct in November 2022, filing for bankruptcy.

Ticketing

Tickets were previously set to go on sale to the general public on November 18, 2022. As a result of Swift's multi-year partnership with Capital One, cardholders had presale access, which was set to begin in the afternoon of November 15. Fans could register for the Ticketmaster Verified Fan program from November 1 through November 9 to receive a code that granted exclusive access to the TaylorSwiftTix Presale to purchase tickets in the morning of November 15; previous Lover Fest ticket holders also received preferred access to the presale if they registered using the same Ticketmaster account. Swift confirmed ticket prices in advance, abandoning the "platinum ticket" model; they ranged from $49 to $449, while VIP packages ranged from $199 to $899. ''USA Today'' reported that the listing for the Nashville tour dates included the disclaimer that "ticket prices may fluctuate, based on demand, at any time."

According to Ticketmaster, the TaylorSwiftTix Presale provided "the best opportunity to get more tickets into the hands of fans who want to attend the show" by evading bots and scalpers. The ticketing platform noted that if demand from the fan program "exceeds supply", it is possible that "verified fans may be selected at random to participate in the presale."

Ticketmaster controversy

The tour recorded an incredibly high demand for tickets. On November 15, Ticketmaster's website crashed following "historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up", halting the presale. Ticketmaster immediately published a statement saying they are working to fix the issues "as the site was unprepared to accommodate the sheer force of hundreds of thousands of Swift fans", and subsequently reported that "hundreds of thousands of tickets" had already been sold and postponed the remainder of the presale. The public on-sale was later cancelled due to "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand". Ticketmaster was widely criticized by fans and customers online for a flawed ticketing model. CNN Business stated that the "astronomical" demand indicated Swift's popularity. However, '' Fortune'' and Bloomberg News attributed the criticism to Ticketmaster's "oft-confusing multistep buying process plagued with additional fees", as well as "long waits, technical problems, and poor customer service".

Greg Maffei, chairman of Live Nation, claimed that Ticketmaster prepared for 1.5 million verified fans but 14 million showed up: "we could have filled 900 stadiums." The company confirmed on November 17 that the November 18 public on-sale was cancelled as well, citing inability to meet demand. Swift released a statement on November 18, 2022, via her Instagram story; she stated that she is "pissed off" and found the fiasco "excruciating". She asserted that she was "not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked icketmaster multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could." Later that same day, Ticketmaster issued an apology "to Taylor and all of her fans" via their Twitter account. Various U.S. lawmakers, including attorneys general and members of the U.S. Congress, took notice of the issue, which became a subject of multiple congressional inquiries. ''The New York Times'' reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster. A group of 26 fans sued Ticketmaster on December 2 for "intentional deception", "fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations".

Various journalists highlighted Swift's influence, and how the controversy could bode well for the music industry. Arwa Mahdawi wrote in ''The Guardian,'' "Swift has had an incredibly impressive career. But you know what? If she gets people to sit up and pay attention to the disgraceful state of antitrust laws in the U.S., I reckon that will be her finest achievement." Brooke Schultz of Associated Press discussed how Swift's fans magnified a website crash into a political movement and considered them an influential voter demographic during elections: "the sheer power and size of Swift’s fandom has spurred conversations about economic inequality, merely symbolized by Ticketmaster". ''Bloomberg'' journalist Augusta Saraiva termed the phenomenon "Swiftonomics"—a microeconomic theory that explains Swift's supply, demand, fanbase and political impact following the COVID-19 pandemic. ''I-D'' dubbed Swift the last remaining "real" popstar for " ifting more albums and filling more stadiums than her contemporaries" and "creat nga hysteria unseen since the industry's golden era." ''Pitchfork'' asked, "Is there any other artist who could force urgency into the federal investigation of a music industry monopoly just by going on tour?"

Ticketstoday sale

On December 12, 2022, Ticketmaster began mailing select fans—"identified as answho received a boost during the Verified Fan presale but did not purchase tickets"—and notified them of a second ticket-buying opportunity to purchase a maximum of two tickets per user, through the platform Ticketstoday. ''Billboard'' reported that Ticketmaster opted to sell the remaining 170,000 tickets over four weeks through Ticketstoday, a ticketing platform originally built for Dave Mathews Band's fanclub the 2000s but was purchased by Live Nation in 2008, to "significantly reduce fan wait times".

Commercial performance

Projections

'' Variety'' projected the Eras Tour to outgross the Reputation Stadium Tour, which currently holds the all-time record for the highest-grossing tour in the United States, with from 38 dates; the Eras Tour has already expanded to 52 dates. However, ''Variety'' noted that "setting a record gross for international touring may be tougher" as English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran holds the record with his ÷ Tour (2017–19), which consisted of 255 dates. Swift's five-show run at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles also stands to generate the highest boxscore at a single venue in the U.S. She could break the SoFi Stadium record set by South Korean boy group BTS' four shows in 2022, which grossed $33.3 million, and the all-time U.S. record held by Bruce Springsteen's 10-night stand at Giants Stadium in 2003, which grossed $38.7 million. Following the Ticketmaster controversy, '' Pollstar'' projected Swift to gross an increased $728 million sum across her 52 U.S. dates and "a mind-boggling billion dollars" internationally, surpassing Sheeran's all-time record with less than half of his tour's dates; it would become the first tour in history to gross a billion-dollar sum.

Presale

The Eras Tour sold over 2.4 million tickets on its first day of presale alone, breaking the all-time record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day. This record was previously held by Robbie Williams after selling 1.6 million tickets for his Close Encounters Tour in 2005. ''Billboard'' reported on December 15 that the Eras Tour had already grossed an estimated $554 million, and projected the U.S. leg to finish with $591 million, surpassing the former all-time female record set by Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour ($407 million) in 2008-2009.

Shows

Venue records

See also

* City of Lover – a 2019 one-day concert by Swift in Paris
* '' Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' – a 2020 concert documentary film by Swift

Footnotes

References

External links

Official website – Events

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eras Tour, The
2023 concert tours
Concert tours of the United States
Taylor Swift concert tours