According to an analysis from 2023, Taylor Swift has become a billionaire after making approximately 370 million U.S. dollars through ticket sales and merchandise. Obviously, beside her super successful Era's tour, the other main component of her income is the new release and re-release of her music, with her re-recording previous albums in order to secure ownership of her work after the rights of her first music were sold.

According to the results of a survey conducted in the United States in October 2023, about 33 percent of respondents aged 30 to 44 years old stated that they considered themselves Taylor Swift fans. More than one in 10 survey respondents aged 65 years or older stated the same. The phenomenon of Taylor Swift Since her first album in 2006, Taylor Swift has managed to build a global brand around her music. According to an analysis from 2023, she officially became a billionaire after making approximately 370 million U.S. dollars through ticket sales and merchandise. Another main component of her income is the release and re-release of her music. However, 2023 seemed to be the year of Taylor Swift in other regards as well. Her Eras Tour, which she launched in March, grossed over one billion U.S. dollars, becoming the highest grossing tour of all time. Additionally, it is estimated that Swift even boosted the U.S. economy with her tour, by 5.7 billion U.S. dollar Yet, she did not stop there, turning her tour into a concert film, which quickly became the most successful concert film in history. By the end of the year, she was Spotify’s most streamed artist globally and subsequently Time Magazine named her “Person of the Year”.

Following the 2019 release of "Lover," Taylor Swift undertook the task of re-recording her earlier albums. This decision was spurred by the sale of all rights to her music catalog by her former record label, Big Machine Records, to her music manager, Scooter Braun. With the release of each subsequent album, Taylor introduced new merchandise, propelling the American artist to unprecedented heights. Since 2019, the traffic to Taylor's online store has steadily increased. This phenomenon has particularly intensified in 2023, marked by the launch of "The Eras Tour," where each concert is a journey through her various musical "eras" of the past 17 years. From January to September 2023, the singer's online store had surpassed 21 million DTC (direct-to-consumer) visits.

For the second consecutive year, Taylor Swift topped the ranking of highest-grossing live music tours worldwide in 2024. Her Eras Tour grossed over 1.04 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, making it the first tour to achieve this milestone twice. Additionally, it became the first tour in history to surpass two billion U.S. dollars in total gross revenue globally. By doing so, she more than doubled the gross revenue of Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour, which ranked second on the list, grossing 421.7 million U.S. dollars. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominate domestic live music market in 2023 Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, who made 2023 the first year since 2008, when two women had led the ranking of most successful worldwide tours, also came on top in their home-ground market. In fact, looking at the gross revenues of their music tours in North America, it is clear that by far the biggest share of their worldwide gross revenue originates from concerts given in that region of the globe. However, this is also true for other artists that made in into the global Top 10: Drake's live music revenues come exclusively from North America, while Morgan Wallen's share stood around 97 percent. Concerts in 2024 raised the roof of the industry's revenue The overall revenues from the top 100 worldwide tours also reached an historic amount in 2024. Ignoring 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic made these tour revenues plummet, revenues had been growing year by year. Yet, figures from pre-pandemic years strongly suggest that this growth was in the risk of stagnation. By contrast, the growth between 2022 and 2024 has gone through the roof, with total revenues from the most successful worldwide tours grossing a record 9.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, marking a historic year for live entertainment.

In North America, the highest gross revenue for a music tour in 2023 was that of Taylor Swift, which generated over 905 million U.S. dollars. Beyoncé and Morgan Wallen followed, with tours grossing 438 and 277 million dollars, respectively.

As of October 2024, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" was the highest grossing concert movie released in theaters with a total global revenue of 261.41 million U.S. dollars. It surpasses "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never", released in 2011, currently in second position with a total box office revenue of 99 million U.S. dollars. A new era for Taylor Swift Following the footsteps of Taylor Swift’s highly successful ongoing tour, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" is a box office sensation. As of April 2024, the most recent data showed that around 70 percent of the film's box office revenue was generated in the United States and Canada alone. Taylor Swift's concert film managed to climb to eighth place in the year's highest grossing movie weekends, behind heavy hitters such as “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”. Swift not only has a large and loyal fanbase, but is now a household name - in 2023, three quarters of Americans were very or somewhat familiar with her work. Rethinking the movie experience The year 2023 turned out to be a mixed bag for the world of cinema. While attendance and box office figures are generally on the rise following the decrease recorded in 2020, these values have struggled to reach pre-pandemic levels. The success of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon is nevertheless an indication that audiences are still ready to flock to cinemas for films which are set to become major events. Moreover, the release of several concert films such as “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé" is proof that cinema has the capacity to achieve a wider cultural impact beyond feature films.

A recent study exploring the global music industry found that revenues from live music events grew by 25 percent in 2023, reaching over 33 billion U.S dollars that year. The market estimates are showing promising growth to pre-pandemic levels and revenue figures surpassing 50 billion dollars by the end of 2030.

Concerts amid COVID-19

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the live music sector as concert venues closed, tours were halted, and festivals rescheduled. But while some events were canceled or postponed indefinitely, others were merely moved online to let music lovers enjoy performances by their favorite artists in a socially distant manner. In Europe, for example, the share of festivalgoers who watched a live music stream during coronavirus lockdowns stood at 60 percent, with a similar share of survey respondents stating they would happily pay to do so. Live stream concerts have become popular alternatives to in-person shows in recent years, and while some artists uploaded pre-recorded concert films to video streaming platforms, others took the virtual stage in gaming apps Fortnite or Roblox.

Most successful live music tours

The live music sector awoke from a deep slumber in 2021 as social distancing measures were loosened and travel bans lifted in many parts of the world. Two years later, looking at the top-grossing concert tours that year, Taylor Swift was taking over the concert market, with her tour's earnings reaching over one billion U.S. dollars. Beyonce's tour ranked second that year, however, the grosses trailed behind at the level of 500 billion dollars.

In 2023, global music revenue generated by digital music and downloads remained unchanged compared to the previous year, at the level of 0.9 billion U.S. dollars. It was the lowest figure reported since 2005.

Music streaming is still in the lead

The music industry has undergone fundamental changes due to the shifts in consumer demand and behavior. In 2022, global recorded music revenue hit an all-time high of around 28 billion U.S. dollars, and while this figure was partially fueled by the revival of the live music sector, the top driver of growth was streaming. Music streaming accounted for an estimated 67 percent of industry revenues in 2023, whereas digital downloads contributed less than five percent to the annual total. Audiences have come to prefer access models over ownership in recent years, which is no surprise considering the extensive range of titles available for a set rate on platforms like Spotify.

Best-selling titles

Most music lovers listen to their favorite tracks and discover new artists via streaming platforms. And yet, some fans also choose to pay for individual music purchases, be it via digital downloads or in physical formats. In 2023, Seventeen's “FML” was the best-selling music album worldwide, with over six billion units sold. The K-pop band featured two of its albums in the same ranking that year. However, when it comes to vinyl, Taylor Swift led the ranks there. Her albums took up the top three spots on a list oftop-selling vinyl albums that same year.

By 2023, Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" has become the most successful worldwide music tour of all time, as it was the first tour to gross over a billion U.S: dollars around the globe. Elton John's farewell tour grossed around 940 million U.S. dollars, earning him second place in the ranking. Ed Sheeran's "Divide" tour completed the Top 3, grossing approximately 776 million U.S. dollars.

As of July 2024, the artist with the most monthly listeners on Spotify worldwide was The Weeknd, with more than 105 million monthly listeners. In second position stood Taylor Swift, closely followed by Billie Eilish. Taylor Swift with 97.4 million monthly listeners as of July 2024, has been making headlines with her new albums, rerecorded music, as well as her sold-out Era's tour which managed to broke records in the live music industry worldwide. Spotify streams as an indicator of the popularity of artists The number of streams listened to on Spotify is an important indicator of the success of an artist and the popularity of specific songs, since Spotify is one of the most popular streaming platforms worldwide. Over the last years, the Swedish audio streaming and media giant has been steadily growing, reaching a revenue of 7.88 billion euros in 2020. The majority of this revenue was generated through premium subscription rather than advertisement on the platform. The number of global employees of Spotify has been rising alongside the company’s growth, with most of them working in the United States. However, while Spotify is currently the most popular global music steaming provider, there are other important market players in the business, most importantly Apple Music. The music streaming market is booming The trending popularity of these services is directly related to significant developments that are changing the music industry. Changes such as the move from physical music sales towards a more digital form of music consumption benefits streaming services as they gain more subscribers. This overall trend that has emerged over the last two decades has accelerated due to coronavirus pandemic of 2020 during which people started to increase their audio consumption, generating a higher demand for audio entertainment.

In 2023, music publisher Warner Chappell had a market share of 12.4 percent, up from 12 percent in the previous year. Independent publishers had the biggest market share at 39.4 percent and accounted for most of the global revenue. Music publishers and record labels in the U.S. A music publisher protects the copyright of an artist’s composition. They are responsible for ensuring that a songwriter or a composer receives payment when their work is used. Music publishers are often included within a larger record company.In 2011, there were four major record companies operating in the U.S. They were Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI. EMI held a 5.7 percent market share of record companies, in terms of label ownership when it disbanded in 2012. In comparison, during the same year, Universal held a 23.9 percent market share. Universal continued to dominate the market in the first half of 2014 with a 28.2 percent share. However, more than any other single record company; independent labels have held the largest share of the market since 2011, with their share reaching 35.1 percent in the first six months of 2014.Independent labels, however, do not dominate the market share of record companies when it comes to album sales. In the first half of 2013, Universal held the biggest market share with 37.7 percent. Sony was ranked second with a 30.38 percent share and Warner, in third, held a 20.79 percent share.When it comes to the highest-paid female musicians in 2014, the top three record companies are well represented. Beyonce, who is signed to Columbia Records, under the ownership of Sony, who was ranked music’s top earning woman and received an estimated annual income of 115 million U.S. dollars, between June 2013 and June 2014. In second place on the top earner’s list however was Taylor Swift, proving that you don’t need to be signed to one of the leading record companies to be successful. Swift has been signed to the independent record label Big Machine Records since 2006 and under their guardianship, earned herself 64 million U.S. dollars in 2014.

Jay Chou was the best-selling music artist in China. As of April 2, 2024, the Taiwanese superstar recorded about 321.6 million yuan in sales revenue across all main music platforms in China. The Chinese singer Xiao Zhan, a member of the idol boy band ININE, ranked sixth with only one single released in April 2020. The two big names and their musical mastery Jay Chou and JJ Lin are the highly influential Asian figures in the Chinese music industry. The former has garnered a massive fan base due to his exceptional ability to compose and produce music that seamlessly blends elements of rock, R&B, and pop. Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin, renowned for his powerful vocals and heartfelt ballads, has captivated million listeners with his emotional and relatable music. Both artists each have two hits on the all-time online ten best-selling music singles in China. Swiftonomics in China The story-driven songwriting style of Taylor Swift, catchy pop tunes, and relatable lyrics make her the most loved western music figure in China. The “Queen of Pop” has the most highest-selling English music albums in the country. This accomplishment can be attributed to her active presence on social media platforms and celebrity endorsements in China which allows her to directly connect with her local fans.

When thinking about tuning into the newest Taylor Swift song or checking out the long-awaited new album by the Rolling Stones, most people will automatically head to their preferred streaming platform rather than into a CD or vinyl shop. This easy accessibility and flexibility make music streaming so popular, which is reflected in the revenues generated by both formats. In the United Kingdom, the biggest music market in Europe, digital music retail sales revenue amounted to a whopping 1.8 billion British pounds, compared to 311 million pounds earned through physical music retail sales. Back in 2011, physical music sales were still dominating the market but were overtaken by music streaming for the first time in 2015. The music market in the UK As in most music markets today, digital music is dominating the industry in the United Kingdom. Not only that, the UK is the biggest digital music market in Europe in terms of revenue. The UK reported a revenue of 1,7 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Germany with 875.4 million U.S. dollars. Considering the two digital formats, streaming and downloads, people seem to prefer music streaming. In 2023, music streaming generated nearly two billion U.S. dollars compared to 160.65 million U.S. dollars made by music downloads. Overall, the digital share of overall music sales in the UK made up 86 percent in 2022, showing the dominance of the format compared to older consumption mediums. Who is consuming music in the UK? Looking at the audience for music in the UK, it can be said that digital users are slightly more likely to be male, with 53.5 percent compared to 46.5 percent being women. Younger generations enjoy consuming music via streaming while their older counterparts use music streaming but also invest in physical copies of music. This is also reflected in the digital music streaming penetration, which is higher among younger age groups. The future of digital music is looking bright, with forecasts estimating that the industry will still grow in the coming years.