Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour concert film pre-sold more than $100 million worth of tickets, per movie chain AMC. The initial roll-out set one-day sales records for AMC with $26 million in the first 24 hours of on-sale. The average price of pre-sale and first sale tickets was $455.78, and Swift has 68 shows total in North America. The average attendance per show was 72,459, accounting for closed off areas and floor seats, according to QuestionPro data. The average resale price of an “Eras” ticket was $1,607, SeatGeek told CNN. <em><strong>Clearly there’s a large subset of consumers who have money to spend on ‘non-essentials’ - lots of money!</strong></em> Worldwide, concerts are a growth fast track, despite all of the economic headwinds that are supposed to have drained consumer purchasing power (or at least sapped them of their will to spend). In fact, entire micro-economies are springing up around concerts - ranging from new outfits to wear to the event, travel spending, to food and beverage. Not to mention merch sales, at the event, and on artists’ websites before and after the tour. The demand and the excitement around the event make it easier to charge premium prices. <h3 style="text-align: center;"><b>Merch Trends for 2023/24</b></h3> <ol> <li aria-level="1">More Colorful Merch: Although black is half of all t-shirts sold, more colors are popping up.</li> <li aria-level="1">Majority of t-shirts sold are still one of 3 colors but a broader array of colors are becoming more popular making up 33% of all t-shirts sold in 2022 (compared to just 10% in 2021 and 14% in 2019).</li> <li aria-level="1">Smaller Product Lines: The top grossing genres are reducing their product lines and seeing a 13% higher average Gross Sales per show</li> <li aria-level="1">51% of all merch sold is t-shirts, with an average price of $38.</li> <li aria-level="1">3 items continue to make up a majority of an artist's Gross Sales averaging 61% of Sales</li> <li aria-level="1">The average small to mid-cap artist makes 9x more per show in Gross Merchandise Sales than a year's worth of streaming royalties</li> <li aria-level="1">61% of merch sales are from the top selling 3 items.</li> <li aria-level="1">45% of artists are offering 15+ unique merch items at a show.</li> <li aria-level="1">Average yearly streaming revenue for a concert is $625 (per Spotify data)</li> <li aria-level="1">Average nightly merch revenue is $5,527 (for a single show of <1,500 capacity) in 2022.</li> <li aria-level="1">20% of fans buy merchandise at concerts, almost double from 2019 (11%).</li> <li aria-level="1">K-Pop fans spend the most with an average of $27.25 per head.</li> <li aria-level="1">Hip Hop/Rap fans spend an average of $11.34 per head.</li> <li aria-level="1">Pop music fans will pay the highest price for concert t-shirts at $40.</li> </ol> <h3><b>Smashing Records </b></h3> The Era’s Tour has so far grossed an estimated $1 billion, and will continue to smash records as Ms. Swift takes it to Canada, South America, Asia, Australia and into more European cities in 2024. Most dates are already sold out, per BBC. Beyoncé’s tour is also making bank. For example, tickets to the final performance of her Renaissance World Tour concert in Kansas City, USA (Oct 1, 2023) sold from $240 for the upper bowl. In the lower bowl, tickets range anywhere from $450 to $2,800. On the floor, tickets range from $850 to $2,600, according to data from StubHub and Ticketmaster. The city's Arrowhead Stadium seats 76,000 for a concert. It was sold out. Live Nation has announced that the superstar's global trek earned more than $579 million worldwide, with 2.7 million fans attending across 56 dates in 39 cities. <h3><b>Not Just Tickets</b></h3> Concertgoers participating in a QuestionPro poll of 862 people who say they attended at least one “Eras” concert said they spent an average of $291.62 each on their outfits, $214.80 on merchandise and $131.48 for food and drinks. US Travel Association data shows Swift's fans spend an average of $1,300 on tickets, travel and clothing to attend The Eras Tour. It’s been estimated that Beyoncé brought in a further $171 million just from merchandise sales at Renaissance concerts, with items selling at an average of $100. In 2019, 11 percent of concert goers purchased merchandise. By 2022 that had increased to 20 percent, per data from AtVenu. The percentage of fans buying merchandise varies drastically between the top ten genres ranging from 15% to 30%, per AtVenu. In general, K-Pop fans are the biggest spenders with 30 percent buying fan merchandise. That’s followed by Hip Hop and Rap at 28 percent. Country music fans are the lowest spenders with only 15% buying merchandise at concerts. Although Taylor Swift’s concert won’t come to the UK until 2024, loyal fans can buy merch from the tour online now. For example, The Eras Tour Heart Photo Hoodie priced at £70, The Eras Tour Cropped Lavender Pullover at £60 and a range of t-shirts for the tour at £35 - which is about the same as the prices for similar items on her US web store. <h3><b>A Hot Venue for … Apparel Sales</b></h3> Festivals continue to provide lucrative opportunities for retail ‘pop ups’. The top selling items tend to be ‘fan wear’ - t-shirts, hoodies, jerseys and caps embellished with the tour’s theme. In other words, basics have found a way to achieve that elusive added-value. About 71% of Gross Merchandise Sales at festivals comes from festival merchandise. This varies by genre with country music festivals averaging 63% and metal music festivals averaging 79%, per atVenu. The average amount spent by fans is $58. Peak hours for selling merchandise are between 4-6 pm, with almost all sales being made between 12 noon and 10 pm. Top selling merchandise items are t-shirts with prices averaging $35, hoodies at $64 and long sleeve shirts at $44, per atVenu data. Rock and Metal fans have a higher likelihood to purchase multiple items than other genres, averaging about 2 items per order compared to the industry average of 1.2 pieces. While there’s a lot of momentum driving sales at the festival or concert venue, artists and festivals also sell merchandise online via their official e-commerce stores. Taylor Swift’s Era Tour 100% cotton t-shirts are available at her store for $45, with hoodies priced at $75. She also releases limited clothing drops, adding to the exclusivity of owning Taylor merch. Her most recent Eras collection for her global tour was only available for purchase for 72 hours. <h3><b>IRL Drives Merchandise Sales</b></h3> The energy around these events, even smaller ones, plays a vital role in driving sales of merchandise. According to figures from atVenu, average nightly revenue in 2022 from a single show in 2022 (<1,500 capacity) was $5,527. Compare the to livestreaming where 11,950 streams results in the sale of 1 band t-shirt (avg. stream = $0.00318 and 1 band tee = $38). And that’s just sales of fan wear. There’s also the money consumers spend on new outfits or even just one new garment to wear to the event. On her website and social media, Beyoncé requested concertgoers to wear their “most fabulous silver fashions” to the shows. For Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, fans chose their favorite era and picked one of Taylor’s looks from that era. The internet is awash with sites selling garments that replicate some of her most famous looks - as well as many more that simply have a similar style. That doesn’t happen when people are watching a stream.