It's no secret that Taylor Swift and Beyoncé put on the two biggest tours of 2023, with Swift even continuing the Eras Era throughout 2024. But not only did both artists earn record earnings and impact local economies with the treks them, but also the spectacles. each artist's recorded music consumption.
Luminate and Advertising sign teamed up to deepen the connection between touring and streaming, capping off a colossal year of headlining tours. Beyoncé and Swift proved to be perfect examples of artists' abilities to leverage their concert calendars not only to make a local hit in each city but also to sustain long-term national interest throughout their tours and beyond.
Both Beyoncé and Swift saw expected increases in their total consumption at the start of their respective tours. When The Eras Tour kicked off, Swift's on-demand audio streaming numbers in the US jumped 59% in the week ending March 23, according to Luminate. For Beyoncé, the effects were teasing, as the first leg of the tour in Europe allowed domestic streaming to slowly build up before her arrival in North America. By the end of their US shows, streams were up – from the week before each tour began to the release of each artist's concert film – by 106% and 34%, respectively.
Initially, these shocks could be explained by analyzing the local short-term impact of the tour on consumption. In every city Beyoncé and Swift played, market-level streams immediately increased by 89% and 95%, respectively, on average. But as their tours continued, individual regional clashes compounded one another, with particular narratives and trends consolidating into a mountain of nationwide consumption.
The mere announcement (Feb. 1, 2023) of Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour — coupled with the 65th annual Grammy Awards, where she didn't perform but accepted two record-breaking trophies — led to three weeks of gains as tour sales held up. excitement alive. The launch of Beyoncé's domestic dates naturally fueled consumption in dramatic fashion with six straight weeks of increases (July 7 – August 17).
Beyoncé expanded her summer flow with intent, focusing on individual moments of choreography and arrangements within the setlist. For “Energy,” a deep cut from Renaissance, made a meal of the verse, “Look around, all in mute.” She took it literally, stopping the song and freezing with her dancers and band, teasing the audience before continuing, “Look around, it's me and my crew/ High energy.”
The Mute Challenge soon became an integral part of the show. By the time “Energy” reached its own streaming peak of 1.7 million clicks (week ending September 7), it had nearly tripled its consumption from the tour.
When Beyoncé performed “My Power,” a non-single from The Lion King: The Gift, along with her daughter Blue Ivy Carter on stage. Their much-heard and much-imitated dance routine entered the canon of Beyoncé's iconic choreography, with fans following Blue's progress throughout the tour. The track saw explosive streaming gains for several months, ultimately increasing 449% from its peak (the week ending August 17) to the start of the tour (the week ending May 4).
Spotlights on under-the-radar tracks like “Energy” and “My Power” yielded organic, sustained increases in consumption that fell alongside a parade of guest stars, controversy over the Queens remix of “Break My Soul” and a steady crowd of social media content showcasing Beyoncé's rotating wardrobe of local designers.
Swift's set list skyrocketed once her tour kicked off on March 17. Even before its release on July 7th Speak Now (Taylor Version)which skewed its streams beyond the impact of The Eras Tour, consumption had nearly doubled, to 372.9 million clicks in the week ending June 1. After the new release slipped, its tally held at 391.4 million by the end of the US week ending August 10.
Like Beyoncé, Swift found songs in her ever-expanding catalog to highlight, particularly those that weren't already world-conquering hits. Even with a nightly setlist of more than 40 songs, he left room each night to perform two alternating “surprise songs.” On average, surprise songs saw a 27% increase in the week of their performance. Remove song performances from Speak now after his release Taylor Edition which, influenced more by new release flow patterns than typical tour impact, average gain rises to 31%.
After the exposure and subsequent stream surge, the typical following week's drop was just 5%, indicating that the surprise song's inclusion in the section encouraged continued streaming action.
During the show's set routine, Swift turned a fan favorite into a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. 1. Lover's “Cruel Summer,” from 2019, was the first song properly performed every night on The Eras Tour, helping to reignite Swifties' passion for the album track. No official music video or announcement, even when Swift is released in 2022 Midnight The track 'Karma' as a single with the Ice Spice remix, 'Cruel Summer' has seen unstoppable growth since the release of the tour. Steadily between 1.9-2.1 million streams in the first months of 2023, the song has grown to 16.7 million since the last airing in the US (week ending August 10).
Swift's prolonged defense of “Cruel Summer” and the success of her surprise singles underscored the Eras Tour's ability to transform her from superstar to stratospheric. Her relationships, philanthropy and seemingly every move on tour continued to fuel her intake, consistently more than double the streams she had from earlier that year.
Both Beyoncé and Swift extended their good fortune by releasing record-breaking concert films, each generating profits for distributor AMC and more consumption increases for their catalogs. The seeds planted with “Energy,” “Cruel Summer” and more came into full bloom, even inside movie theaters, with audiences singing and dancing along—except when they had to be mute.
Months after each tour ended in the US, Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé the pop-dance-R&B(-country) chameleon saw a 54% increase in streams in the week of its December 1 release, while Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour earned the former pop star 20% following its October 13 release.
Beyoncé and Swift are, of course, huge stars who were likely to garner attention on a tour, even if they weren't planning and working for those kinds of long-term rewards. But this kind of long-term, national growth isn't just for top megastars, as Maluma, ODESZA and Weezer all experienced similar tours last year.
Both five years removed from their last stadium tours, Beyoncé and Swift designed their shows for maximum impact and staged campaigns that turned each trek into an era of its own.
