Swiftie Saturday

🎵 Listening to Taylor Swift's new album + exploring her cultural and economic impact

It’s a beautiful morning. The sun is out. The sky is blue. The tulips are up. The dogwood tree is starting to bloom. The azaleas and rhododendrons are already blooming — early this year.

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I’m going to do something a little different today. You see, I have a running list of things I might want to write about. But after reading the list twice, what I find myself wanting to write about today is Taylor Swift.

She released another album yesterday. You might have heard. I am listening to it for the first time as I write this. I have read zero reviews. I have never attended one of her concerts. I do not call myself a Swiftie. But it’s hard to escape the pull of Taylor Swift.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

The first Taylor Swift song I remember secretly liking was Love Story. It came out in 2008.

During the pandemic, she surprised the world with two new albums. The first, folklore, was released in July 2020.

The second, evermore, was released a few months later in December 2020. Growing up, I remember when artists used to release a new album every three years or so and I rationalized her output as a product of being quarantined at home.

I listened to both albums and the quieter vibe really worked for me in that time period. Even today, some years later, one of those songs — exile — remains one of my favorite songs from the pandemic years.

Much has been written about Taylor Swift. Even from afar, I long ago came to the impression that — in addition to being a talented musician — she is also quite savvy at business.

As Prince famously told Rolling Stone back in 1996, "If you don't own your masters, your master owns you."

-NPR

She started re-recording her early albums, releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021 and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023. In between, she dropped another new album, Midnights, in 2022.

Last year she went on tour. And, while I didn’t follow it closely, it was hard to miss. It started seeping into my Instagram feed. An adult I know shared twenty-one posts of the experience. Someone I know even dressed up their dog as a Swiftie for Halloween. It was a cultural moment.

Photo by Stephen Mease on Unsplash

More than music

Taylor Swift and The Eras Tour were all over the news. She and her fans were responsible for billions in economic impact:

A well-cited study by Question Pro, calculates that Swifties have already directly spent around $5 billion in destinations around the country. U.S. Travel has confirmed that––though referred to as economic impact––this is a lowball figure, which carefully adds up direct spending by fans.

We believe that the total economic impact likely exceeded $10 billion. The total economic impact includes indirect spending as well as spending by others who came to join the action around the events but did not actually attend the shows.

Source: The Taylor Swift Impact – 5 Months and $5+ Billion (US Travel Association)

Companies including AMC, Disney, Live Nation and Lyft highlighted her impact on earnings calls:

“Fans flocked to stadiums, with these rides growing by more than 35% year-over-year, driven by high-attendance stadium events including Taylor Swift and Beyonce concerts,” Lyft said in its fourth-quarter earnings report in February.

Source: Taylor Swift's name is popping up on Wall Street earnings calls thanks to her massive impact on the US economy (Business Insider)

Taylor Swift’s impact even found its way into the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which noted:

Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.

CNBC highlighted how small businesses capitalized on the moment and Time published a thoughtful longer piece explaining her impact:

• The Taylor Swift economy has reached every town in America, from small business moms to skating rinks and sushi bars (CNBC)

• The Staggering Economic Impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (Time)

“If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries,” said Dan Fleetwood, President of QuestionPro Research and Insights, in a story for GlobalNewsWire.

-Time

Given her economic impact, some are now teaching Taylor Swift:

• The Taylor Swift Economy is now a high school curriculum (Axios)

  • Explore Swiftynomics 101

• From pop star to case study: UC Berkeley course delves into Taylor Swift's business acumen (The Times of India)

Heck, even Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, got into the act, releasing a surprisingly funny (and high production value) holiday video that played on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

And now we have another Taylor Swift album. You probably already knew about it. I confess: the first time I knew about it was only yesterday when it showed up in The Morning newsletter from The New York Times.

• Tortured Poets’ or Poets? Taylor Swift Meets the Apostrophe Police.

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🎵 Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department

Here is the new album:

I’ll be curious to hear your impressions if you listen to it.

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I hope you are having a great day.

Be well,

-Bryce