What Taylor Swift reveals about the U.S. economy
Skyrocketing demand, limited supply, price gouging and monopoly accusations. And a customer willing to pay almost anything.
Welcome to “Swiftonomics.” Taylor Swift’s upcoming U.S. tour of 52 concerts has all the ingredients of a post-COVID demand shock. Some resellers reportedly asked $40,000 or more for concert tickets following last week’s run on official sales, which left millions empty-handed and ready to pay whatever it takes to score a seat.
Swifties, as the pop star’s fans are known, aren’t necessarily your average American, but they capture the current moment in the post-COVID economy. Even as recession looms, many consumers are willing to splurge on what they missed at the height of the pandemic — whether it’s travel or live entertainment.
Ms. Swift’s fans represent an extreme version of that turbocharged consumer: millions of mostly Millennials and Gen Zs who waited at least four years to see the superstar live again and emerged from the pandemic with historically high rates of savings.
“Concerts are seen as an affordable luxury in times of crisis,” said Lisa Yang, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst who publishes the bank’s annual “Music in the Air” report on the global industry.
Right now, Ms. Swift’s “The Eras Tour” tickets are available only on the secondary market and they’re anything but cheap.
About 2.4 million were sold last week before Ticketmaster suspended the official pre-sale. The ticketing company’s site crashed under the pressure of some 14 million people trying to get seats.
Among them was Melissa Kearney, an economics professor at the University of Maryland who is now experiencing first-hand the basic laws of supply and demand. The mother of two Swifties, ages 12 and 15, said she’s looking at secondary-market prices after failing to score tickets.
“There’s nothing more than this that they want in the world,” said Ms. Kearney, who directs the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. “The pandemic in general changed the way people think about what’s really important to them, and what brings them joy.”
Gustavo Coutinho, who’s never seen Ms. Swift play live, came up with a $2,000 budget after 10 months of savings. The 25-year-old consultant in Boston ended up spending about $1,500 to attend two concerts. “I would pay $3,000 if I had to,” he said.
In the early 2000s, the late economist Alan Krueger came up with the concept of “Rockonomics” to explain the economy through the lens of the music industry. Mr. Krueger often used Ms. Swift, who released her debut album in 2006 at the age of 16, as an example of someone who played with strategies that boosted concert and product sales, calling her “an economic genius.”
His pupils agree. “She’s almost becoming a whole category,” said Carolyn Sloane, who teaches a “Rockonomics” class at the University of California at Riverside. “People don’t really see a great substitute for going to a Taylor Swift show. They really want to see her live, and I say that as a fan myself.”
Other artists, including Bruce Springsteen, have proved fans are ready to pay sky-high prices for mega post-COVID live events — recession be damned.