Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” is forecasted to bring in over $1B in revenue — which would surpass prior records…

• #1: Elton John’s ongoing “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour has brought in $887M between 2018 and 2023.
• #2: Ed Sheeran’s “Divide Tour” brought in $776M between 2017 and 2019.

Her current billion-dollar tour has 106 shows globally, with US tickets averaging $215 — up from $345M gross across 53 shows at an average of $119 per ticket in her last tour.

Blockbuster tours’ per-show concert sales “are higher than they’ve ever been,” per Billboard’s senior director of live music and touring (WSJ). Live Nation’s (NYSE:LYV) revenue has recovered since COVID and then some — with 2022 revenue up 44% from its 2019 levels.

The ticketing monopoly

In 2010, Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster — realizing that they could make more by selling tickets to the concerts they also promote.

Thirteen years later, Live Nation has an estimated 70% control over the market. Venues have little option but to sell tickets on Ticketmaster; otherwise, they risk not getting any shows at all.

• Last fall, strong demand led to a surge in traffic from fans and bots — causing Ticketmaster’s site to crash.
• This brought a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and attention from US lawmakers — who criticized the lack of competition in the ticketing market.

This month, Ticketmaster pledged to show fees upfront — ending its practice of adding extra costs near the end of checking out. Want more impactful changes? It could take many years.

Last November, the US Department of Justice opened up an antitrust investigation into Live Nation — but separating its businesses would happen “sometime in our lifetime,” per George Washington University’s law school’s William Kovacic (Reuters).