How did music megatours become such a money spinner?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shattered records, becoming the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, redefining what’s possible and confirming a new era in the business of touring.
As streaming transformed how we listen to music, selling records is no longer the financial centrepiece it once was for artists. Instead, exclusivity has been transferred to the live experience. But staging shows on this scale requires enormous investment and complex production. At the same time, ticket scarcity fuels extraordinary demand and rising prices, which mean big ticket prices.
Tanya Beckett explores how technology, fandom and economics turn modern concert tours into multi-billion-dollar ventures.
This week on The Inquiry, we’re asking: How did music megatours become such a money spinner?
Contributors
Kevin Kim, Head of Asia at music distribution company Route Note, Seoul, South Korea
Serona Elton, professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, United States
Adam Behr, Reader and Head of Music at Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Poppy Reid, music journalist and founder of Curious Media, Sydney, Australia
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producers: Maeve Schaffer and Matt Toulson Researcher: Evie Yabsley Production Management Assistant: Liam Morrey Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Editor: Tom Bigwood
(Photo: Taylor Swift during The Eras Tour. Credit: Erika Goldring/TAS24/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Welcome to The Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.0 | One question, four expert witnesses, and an answer. |
| 0:19.5 | Thank you so much. |
| 0:24.5 | A year ago, music's largest grossing concert tour of all time |
| 0:29.1 | made a stop in Canada for its grand finale. |
| 0:32.9 | Taylor said so long to the Evis tour in Vancouver last night, |
| 0:35.9 | 20 months after the three-hour-plus |
| 0:37.6 | shore made its debut. It was the conclusion of an almost two-year live music sprint by Taylor Swift, |
| 0:45.0 | which took in no fewer than five continents. By the time the star had bid a tearful goodbye |
| 0:51.7 | to her band and crew that night in Vancouver, Swift's 149 concerts |
| 0:58.2 | had ended up grossing over $2 billion. Until that point, no concert tour in history |
| 1:06.0 | had brought in revenues of even half that number. But Taylor Swift's staggering achievement set a new bar. |
| 1:15.5 | Nine months later, pop band Coldplay completed the latest leg of its music of the Sphere's |
| 1:21.7 | World Tour. |
| 1:28.4 | Revenues so far Stars I think I see you. |
| 1:33.0 | Revenues so far have topped one and a half billion dollars. |
| 1:37.6 | This week we're asking, |
| 1:39.6 | how did music Megatores |
| 1:41.1 | become such a money spinner? |
| 1:45.3 | Part 1, The Fans. |
| 1:49.2 | So far, they've been watching there on YouTube, |
... |
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