Who runs the... ECONOMY?

What a monumental year it has been for women in the entertainment industry, with luminaries like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift leading the way. Most recently, Taylor Swift achieved a staggering milestone, solidifying her status as a trailblazer at the age of 33 by surpassing a net worth of over $1 billion. What makes this achievement truly exceptional is that she stands as the "first musician to attain such heights solely through her exceptional music and live performances." Even more astonishing, her fortune has skyrocketed from $360 million in just a few months since June when she ranked 34th among America's wealthiest self-made women, according to Forbes.

Swift's burgeoning wealth is not solely attributed to the success of her Eras tour but is complemented by the tour's feature film and the royalties derived from her extensive music catalog. Her journey epitomizes not only an immensely gifted and industrious musician but also an astute businesswoman. As for Beyoncé, her recent tour was nothing short of a spectacular triumph, even though it might not have garnered the same headlines as her contemporary's ascent to the billionaire club. As a business woman she too is brilliant, with a highly diversified income stream. Collectively, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have not only dominated the entertainment headlines throughout the past year but have also made waves in economic news.

This convergence of their accomplishments is nothing short of exhilarating, historic, and truly unprecedented. It marks the commencement of a chapter for which we are yet to find adequate words. Nevertheless, as this is SheMoney, I will attempt to not only articulate the significance of these extraordinary achievements, but make up a few new economic terms to capture the magnitude of these money moves.

Financial analyts and writers were quick to come up with terms like “Funflation” and “Swiftonomics” to describe the unprecedented economic impact of the tours. A better term might be Bey-Tayonomics or Tay-Beyonomics. ( And yes, I just made these up!) When I googled “Beyoncé and Taylor Swift tours economic impact", I got 19 million search results – a clear indication of just how big this story has been from a financial perspective. ? According to this Investopedia piece, spending related to these two concert tours and two movies was over $5 billion, contributing .7 percentage points to growth in U.S. consumer spending and .6 points to the GDP. Just think about that for a second. That number, $5 billion, which is likely a low estimate, is larger than the total annual GDP of about 35 different countries.

To give you just one example of the financial impact, let’s go through the numbers with my own concert experience. I wasn’t lucky enough to secure tickets for the Eras tour, but I did manage to score tickets for Beyoncé thanks to their partnership with Citi Mastercard. (smart move, 花旗 , by the way!)? As a lottery winner, I got to pick my city and the most convenient option for me, given the dates, was Seattle.? I paid $300 for each ticket, plus a mandatory $61 service fee, which I assume all went to Ticketmaster, which is owned by LiveNation [LYV]. (I went down the rabbit hole of? how much money this company made selling tickets with such exorbitant fees and it’s well over $100 million!)? I drove down from British Columbia, which meant no flight costs, but there was the cost of gas and a speeding ticket due to losing focus while jamming to Formation, which totaled $300. Two nights in a hotel cost $800, given the inflated prices from the tour. Beyoncé swag added another $200 to my expenses, and I spent $200 hundred more on food, drink and transportation. Outfit? No incremental spend as I already had a lot of silver in my wardrobe.? No surprise there. All in, the total surpassed $1600. This number is right around the average Beyoncé concert spend, according to this article citing New York Times Research. Clearly that is a lot of money, and more in line with what someone might spend on a vacation. And that is how we viewed this trip. The concert was the reason for, and the anchor experience for, our girls trip. Since we are making up new financial terms, how about naming this trend concercations ( concerts + vacations)?

Unpacking my personal concert spend made me so curious about the business of live entertainment, (if you are curious about that too, check out this research report by Bank of America* which breaks it down).? Suffice it to say that there are many companies, and thousands of people, that can directly connect their paychecks to the talents and draw of Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and other musical performers. It's called the live entertainment value chain. This trend of the concert spend has, in fact, become its own investment thesis, with Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich noting that “live entertainment is currently the brightest star in the broader media and entertainment universe.”? She goes on to lay out "five catalysts that will lead to sustained long-term growth in the industry: continued spending shifts towards services and experiences; healthy pricing power amid increased demand; positive supply and demand trends as social media apps like TikTok boost global awareness and fan growth; the relatively "disruption-proof" nature of live events as virtual methods remain incomparable; and the advent of experiential marketing."

Unpacking Bey-Tayonomics has to include the indirect and redirected spending as well. People, fans, are not only going to the concerts and movies, but are dressing up in costumes for the showings as well. Many retail outlets loaded up on everything and anything with silver sequins in anticipation of the Beyoncé effect . I can imagine a time in the near future when mega-stars release a capsule fashion collection alongside their tours. And we can’t forget about Halloween. Americans spent about $4 billion on costumes this year, and while these purchases are connected to an occasion, they are often kept and used for other purposes as well. In conversation with my friend Courtney Prince, founder of Doloris Petunia, who specializes in made-to-order luxury apparel for special occasions, she shared that almost 70% of her girls’ costume orders this year were for Taylor Swift or Barbie themed.?Seeing junior consumer demand swing so far away from the typical, time honored desired to dress as the princess (waiting to be saved) to a Taylor Swift persona empowers these girls to step into the kind of power that such a sense of “Tay-gency” inspires. Further, research shows that "dressing up is a form of imaginative play — and imaginative play boosts problem-solving and self-regulation skills. Kids create situations and scenes and act out social events. They’re able to test out new ideas and behaviors in a comfortable environment". Courtney, as someone who has been in fashion for decades, celebrated the pivot noting that? “it feels like it is the start of something so much bigger than we realize.”??

I have been to a lot of concerts in my life and I have to say that the Beyoncé experience was worth every penny.? It completely blew my mind! Beyoncé’s voice, stage presence, costumes, backup vocalists, dancers, light show, and graphics were on a whole other level. People I know who saw the Eras tour say similar things.? What was also striking to me, both during the live Beyoncé performance and in my theater experience with the Taylor feature film, was the profound connection between the artist and the audience. There was a lot of singing along, exuberant dancing, and an overall sense of magic that enveloped everyone. I would have described myself as a fan of both these artists in 2022, but, in 2023, I am officially a full-on Swiftie and a member of the BeyHive.?

There is something more to these two female artists than their extraordinary musical talent and showmanship. While many artists are talented, few have truly been able to capture the hearts, and the wallets, of their fans like they have. The question is, why? What makes these two artists so special? So worth the spend? So deserving of the unbridled enthusiasm and celebration? What is it that both these women possess, display, and champion that is so darn inviting and intoxicating? My answer in one word would be this one. Agency. Talent aside, they both represent what it looks like for a woman to have agency, for a woman to have power. ?These women are not just selling the empowerment message, they are authentically embodying it.

Agency is the ability to act as an effective agent for yourself—reflecting, making creative choices, and constructing a meaningful life.

Over the past few weeks, I asked dozens of people, from a 6-year-old to women in their 80s, who comes to their mind when they think of a powerful woman. Almost without exception, the answer was Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. One younger girl said Barbie, which I thought was adorable.? My 82-year-old mother pointed at me and said “you,” which was also adorable.? When I asked a follow-up question about what makes them powerful, answers fell into the buckets of their finances, followers, influence and authenticity.

More often than not, there would be a story that followed their answer. One woman made sure to tell me that Taylor gave out big and unexpected bonuses to her touring crew. Another person shared how much they respected her for re-recording and releasing 1989 after her masters were sold to a private equity firm without her consent.? A millennial pointed out that Taylor champions young people to register to vote. A very exuberant teenager told me that she caused a earthquake during her concert in Seattle. With Beyoncé, I heard about how she created a public charity called BeyGood, founded on the message that “everyone has the right to economic equity”.? I also heard about her long list of Grammy awards (32 awards and 88 nominations) and , how she was the first Black woman to headline Coachella, her iconic music videos and visual albums, and so much more. They are writing a new business playbook for artists, shifting power towards the creator, where it should be! ?And, the story of their economic impact came up over and over again. Finally, let’s not forget about their lyrics. Both artists are known for writing or co-writing their own material that is loaded with empowering messages. While working on this piece, I had their music on in the background and kept writing down my favorite lyrics in my quote notebook. Again, the word that kept showing up for me? Agency.?

I decided to rewatch the 2020 Documentary about Taylor Swift called Miss Americana, directed by Lana Wilson (available on Netflix). The film, which has a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes with over 2000 reviews, tells Taylor’s story in her own words. The movie presents the unadulterated life of a pop star, the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. The good was bearing witness to her drive, talent, creative process and achievement. The harder to watch were her struggles with self-doubt, the brutal media stories, the name calling and the full out misogyny directed towards her as a successful woman. I had forgotten about the incident with Kanye West after she won a VMA award where he grabbed the microphone and stated the award should have gone to Beyoncé. Taylor, a 19 year old at the time, handled it with such grace and grit, as did Beyoncé.? The documentary also covered Taylor’s experience of sexual assault and the subsequent winning of the lawsuit against the perpetrator, which seemed to mark a turning point for Taylor Swift in terms of her personal sovereignty.? Her journey was so beautifully and sensitively documented and her choice to be so vulnerable, which Brené Brown defines as “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure”, is likely the magic ingredient in her enormous popularity.? To further quote Brené, “there is not a single act of courage that does not require vulnerability” and indeed the word courageous is a great one to describe Taylor Swift.

This article initially delved into the themes of money, wealth, and economic influence, but it quickly became evident that these headlines are merely the visible results of a far more profound narrative. At the heart of this financial saga stand two remarkable, self-reliant women, who possess not only extraordinary talents, unwavering dedication, and a visionary outlook but have also assembled formidable teams to support them in achieving their audacious aspirations. In a challenging industry and culture that often impedes the ascent and perseverance of women, they have adeptly charted their course to the pinnacle, continually raising the bar and, in the process, leaving an indelible mark on the live entertainment landscape.

Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are not merely musical icons; they transcend the boundaries of their artistry to become cultural phenomena. Their unprecedented popularity and universal recognition extend well beyond the realm of music, leaving an indelible imprint not only on the economy but also on the collective zeitgeist. Let us celebrate the emergence of "Bey-Tayonomics" with an enthusiastic "YAY" ! And if you have an extra ticket to the Eras tour please let me know.

*The drawing is an original by Liza Donnelly for SheMoney.