As a follow-up to the recent Placer.ai Blog post looking at the overall economic impact of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, we examined visitation and trade area trends for each of the tour’s stops to better understand the difference between concert attendees and “Swifties”. The first stop of the tour was two nights in March at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and concluded this past Wednesday after six nights in Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium. A few overall observations about this remarkable tour by a remarkable artist:
- Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles (5 nights) and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey (3 nights) delivered the largest audience to the Eras Tour. The first stop at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (2 nights) had the smallest. Nationwide, only 2% of the audience saw more than one show in their home market. Los Angeles and New Jersey had twice the Swifties compared to the average (excluding the outliers), whereas, Vegas had half the Swifties.
- Shown in the heat map below is the trade area where the Las Vegas concert attendees originated from. Both Northern and Southern Californians dominated that show’s attendance. Curiously, Texas was not an outsized contributor. And so, by attendance, there are more Swifties in California than any other state.
- Given the expensive ticket price, it isn’t surprising that affluence was a strong characteristic of the audience. At every stop except Los Angeles, 20% or more of the audience had a household income above $150K. For the Houston show at NRG Stadium, this figure was 36%, the highest of all stops. The average of the median household incomes for all stops was $92K per 2019 Census figures. (It’s much higher in today’s dollars given the growth in household income over the past four years. Adjusted for that the $92K becomes $110K.)
- Given the affluence of the audience, it isn’t surprising to see that the three most common Experian Mosaic psychographic profiles are: (1) Power Elite at 21% (the wealthiest households in the US, living in the most exclusive neighborhoods); (2) Singles & Starters at 14% (young singles starting out living in diverse urban communities); and (3) Booming with Confidence at 11% (prosperous, established couples in their peak earning years living in suburban homes). Within the Power Elite segment, the sub-segment American Royalty (wealthy, influential couples and families living in prestigious suburbs) made up about half of the group.
- Looking at summed variance to the averages, we see that the Cincinnati crowd was most similar to the averages, whereas Pittsburgh and Detroit are the most distinct from the average (with very similar audiences). Moreover, 3.5%-4.0% of their audience was Aspirational Fusion (low-income singles and single parents living in urban locations striving to make a better life) versus the average stop at 0.4%.
- The SoCal Swiftie is more similar to the tour average than most markets (i.e., its summed variance is less than the average summed variance). However, from there, things get interesting. Unlike other markets where the Swiftie is much more affluent than the statewide average, the SoCal Swiftie has a similar median household income. Households with incomes above $150K were 27% of the Swifties on average. In SoCal, this was only 17%. The SoCal Swiftie also matches the statewide average for both higher education and white ethnicity. However, the tour averages were meaningfully higher for these two. Where the Power Elite dominated in every other market, for the SoCal Swiftie, this was only average. Within the Power Elite segment, the SoCal Swiftie is more American Royalty than the statewide average, but less Jet Set Urbanite (affluent singles and couples living in urban neighborhoods).
