Joey Salceda vs Taylor Swift in Singapore?
TAYLOR Swift is the undisputed titan and icon of the music world, and perhaps even far beyond. Even governments of countries as well as cities are now fighting over her! Why is it an issue for Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippine governments with Singapore?
It is estimated that Taylor merely entering to perform in a city brings in tens of millions of US dollars per day in tourism, dining, shopping, entertainment and leisure, and other businesses. The six-day Eras Tour in Singapore is estimated to have brought in nearly $400 million of visitor revenue.
Over 330,000 tickets sold out, some at over $900 each for the VIPs, with a very big portion from all over Southeast Asia. All hotels were fully booked with substantially increased prices; the same with airlines, not just for six days, but including the day before and days after. Tourists did not just come to listen to the concert; many of all ages came to just be on the premises or in Singapore to be with their friends as a “barkadahan” occasion.
Why is it an issue for the Thai, Indonesian and Philippine governments with Singapore? Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin made public the allegation that the Singaporean Tourism Board’s support of $3 million for the event being held in Singapore included a condition that Taylor Swift’s Southeast Asian tour would only be in Singapore.
Rep. Joey Salceda opines that true or not, “it was at the expense of neighboring countries, which could not attract their own foreign concertgoers, and whose fans had to go to Singapore,” and that it was at least worth bringing up, in the interests of the Philippines and Asean fans who were disappointed, for those who couldn’t afford to fly to Singapore.
Salceda also recognized the Singapore government made a good move from a business standpoint in that the deal returned its subsidy many dozen folds to the city in taxes and for private enterprises. Perhaps he was making some kind of “parinig” or “lambing” as part of his advocacy for our country.
What can we Filipinos learn from, and how can we adapt to this stunning example, a realization that entertainment is a major tourism, marketing, and almost instantly executable economic catalyst? (Unlike many economic projects that take years to implement, with unclear results? )
It is a principle of success that the quickest way to achieve success is to apply existing proven business models in established markets and ride with the tides rather than against them. Taylor Swift and the entertainment world are proven both catalysts and markets. What were the factors for success for the governments and for herself as an individual?
If there is a world heavyweight boxing champion in music, Taylor is it. She is also the greatest multicategory champ — lording it over in concert ticket sales, streaming, fan engagement, album sales, and even across music categories, just like Pacquiao lorded over as champ in the widest range of weight classes in boxing history.
The making of a Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s success as a music icon started with the basics of melodic, good singing that was able to top and dominate the charts. She broke records in album sales, digital sales, streaming and airplay achievements.
Her popularity and confidence were such that she could pull her music from the streaming service Spotify in 2014 over low royalties until 2017, when Spotify gave in. In a dispute with Apple over royalties in 2015, with Swift just threatening to pull out of Apple Music, Apple changed its mind in one day.
Beyond writing and singing, she was also a style icon with a strong visual sense in the concert arena and a record-breaking performer able to go for hours on simultaneous days.
But unlike many performers who are also lifestyle leaders and enter the business, she has exceptional business acumen, changing the traditional album release model of income based on song rights and ownership or percentages of performances. She re-recorded songs to gain master ownership, and not once, but time and again, these sold more than the originals!
This caused more artists to do rerecordings of their own and record labels to include prohibitions in their contracts from re-recordings for several years or decades.
She pre-recorded her concert performances and had successful movie theater plays of the same concerts through her own organization, where fans went and even danced and sang together in theaters.
Swift’s fan base multiplied further as she experimented with different genres of music to appeal to a wide range of listeners, allowing the equivalent of the “ERAs” tour.
Creating a new projection of her albums as art objects and collector’s items created added physical sales, especially for vinyl; differentcolored LP variants and packaging, collector’s items, and bonuses included led to multiple purchases by fans of the same albums.
All of these would not be possible if she did not have exceptional fan engagement and devotion. She used social media not just to market but to communicate with fans directly, gave personalized gifts and letters to members of her Swiftie community, had meet-andgreets during her tours, and even held a party for hundreds at her house for baking and dancing.
For our government and entrepreneurs?
Clearly, it is not just Taylor Swift, but entertainment as a category has become a major power not just in business but also in national and local government marketing. Can we regulate it, perhaps in some cases? But let’s ride and partner with it and other forces for our people.
As analyst lawyer investor Joel Shen points out, “to solely attribute Ms.
Swift’s decision to hold the concert in Singapore to government grants ... is simplistic. AEG will have considered other factors, such as infrastructure, security, stability, connectivity, and availability of complementary facilities such as hotels and F&B.”
The Taylor Swift concert exclusive was a multi-departmental project of the Singapore government led by the Ministries of Youth and Tourism and others; negotiations started in 2022, i.e., two years earlier, which means the government was thinking out of the box, studying the trends in the world, and had a strategy to make Singapore a concert capital for Asean, including many other performers like Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Jacky Cheung, Blackpink, etc., and the central government was willing to give subsidies with a well-calculated return rather than for rent-seeking.
Taylor Swift for the Filipinos
We may not be as organized … yet, but surely we can improve ourselves and move forward in every development category.
The class on Taylor Swift that the University of the Philippines is offering was reportedly oversubscribed, with over 300 students. Should our universities also offer classes on Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jack Ma, and other Filipinos’ rags to riches, self-made, successful personalities?
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” Chinese proverb from Chapter 64 of the Dao De Jing. Even if there are many missteps, we must persist, study and improve quickly if there are mistakes! And avoid falling into major pits like unnecessary conflicts and major unproductive occupations!
George Siy is a successful industrialist and business and civic society leader. He is also the director of various major business chambers. He has assisted the government in various capacities, including as an international trade negotiator for the Philippines vis-a-vis Asean, Japan and the USA.