This morning we will witness Taylor Swift’s last concert this year. The one from Tennessee says goodbye to The Eras Tour on the stage of the Allianz Parque in São Paulo after 66 dates (13 of them international) in which he has toured the stadiums of the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, hanging the sold-out sign in all of them and breaking all kinds of records along the way.
Since this journey through all its musical stages began on March 17, we have witnessed all kinds of milestones and surprises: cities honoring her presence and her help to the local economy by changing their names and making her honorary mayor, shows in the rain, the announcement and launch of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version)the premiere of two live music videos, the arrival of The Eras Tour in movie theaters around the world or confirmation of her relationship with American football player Travis Kelce.
All of this without taking into account the titanic size of the show itself: 3 and a half hours of concert with a repertoire of 44 songs (two of them surprise each night during their acoustic set) and a dozen costume changes. Luxury guests, large groups and artists opening their concerts as support acts and an infrastructure that has required three assembly teams to operate (up to six days of preparation in the stadiums are needed for each of their stops) are just one more example of the importance of Taylor Swift internationally and within the industry, where For another year it has been responsible for great changes and has served as an example for other artists.
Changes that, on the other hand, They have come in response to great controversies. Starting with the sale of tickets for their North American dates. During the month of November last year, when Taylor Swift barely had about twenty dates confirmed for her first stage in the United States, hundreds of thousands of fans experienced firsthand the odyssey of trying to get a ticket for the show. her: Ticketmaster, belonging to the parent company Live Nation, did not have the necessary infrastructure to deal with the high demand of people who tried to access the sale. despite having assured the singer otherwise. More than 2.4 million people would finally manage to get their ticket in the first 24 hours, but not before going through large virtual queues (which had been preceded by a prior registration of fan verification) collapsed by the presence of bots, more of 14 million people connected at the same time and inflated prices, precisely, due to high demand. Not even doubling her dates in the United States was enough to address this problem.
The result? The sale of the remaining tickets was suspended, leaving thousands of fans angry at how things had been done with an insufficient apology. from the company that maintains a monopoly in the United States for this type of events. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, is visibly angry with the development of events and about twenty fans willing to take Ticketmaster to court, change the dynamics of the ticket sales business and receive financial compensation of $2,500 per person.
Pressure from fans, the ongoing judicial process and comments from President Biden himself got Ticketmaster to commit to being more transparent with its event prices: additional sales commissions would be revealed from the beginning of the purchase and would be visibly reduced, in addition to the start-up of the “Fan to fan” program to avoid the resale of tickets outside the platform and guarantee access to the concert for people who are really interested. In the following months, not only the singer’s international fans benefited from these changes (which also prevented prices inflated by demand), but artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, who later announced her GUTS World Tour, followed the same strategy Taylor when it comes to putting his tickets on sale.
On the other hand, the premiere of The Eras Tour Concert Film on international billboards During the past month of October it has paved the way in offering the concert experience to all budgets. There have been many fans who, for one reason or another, have been unable to attend next year’s concerts (Taylor still has 85 dates ahead of her in Europe, Asia and North America), but The possibility of enjoying them on the big screen as a collective event invites you to enjoy these shows with the same intensity but in a different way..
Music documentaries about the creation of albums have been in fashion for years, but the concert experience on the big screen is something we have Taylor Swift to thank. She, of course, continues to fill her pockets, but There is no doubt that it is capable of changing the experience of how we understand this type of events and serves as an example to follow for other international artists.. Beyoncé has followed a similar path with The Renaissance Tour and all the work behind her show, now the only thing left is for more people to follow in her footsteps.
