Making a Music City (Taylor's Version)

It's undeniable: the Taylor Swift effect is real. Host cities on the first leg of Swift's The Eras Tour saw a huge influx of visitors-and cash. Over the course of 53 arena events, over a million "Swifties" spent an average of $1,327.74 to attend, including tickets, outfits, merch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Planning 2024-12, Vol.90 (1), p.6-9
Main Author: Woock, Kati
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Audits
Cities
Community
Economic development
Economic impact
Entertainment industry
Hotels
Hotels & motels
Impact analysis
Music
Music industry
Planning
Public transportation
Rapid transit systems
Swift, Taylor
Tourism
Transportation planning
Zoning
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Summary:It's undeniable: the Taylor Swift effect is real. Host cities on the first leg of Swift's The Eras Tour saw a huge influx of visitors-and cash. Over the course of 53 arena events, over a million "Swifties" spent an average of $1,327.74 to attend, including tickets, outfits, merchandise, travel, and food and drink. Swift's two-night run in Cincinnati saw hotel occupancy surge to 98 percent, with $2.6 million brought in from downtown hotel revenue in those two days alone. Los Angeles, which hosted the final six shows of the tour's first leg, saw a total economic impact of $320 million and 3,300 jobs created.Swifties also were a boon to public transportation in many cities. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority added late-night services to ensure that concertgoers could get home after the performance. The Los Angeles Metro even created a special trip-planning page for Swift fans, complete with lyrical references. But none of this is happenstance, says Shain Shapiro, PhD, author of the recently published book This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better."How many articles have I read about the Taylor Swift-ification of Nashville, where people completely miss the point that Taylor Swift just didn't come out of thin air? There are decades of work behind her success story," he says.Nicknamed "Music City," Nashville's music industry has a $10 billion annual economic impact on the region and more music industry jobs-56,000-than any other U.S. city. Nashville is Swift's adopted hometown, as her family relocated from Pennsylvania when she was a teen to take advantage of the music opportunities there. What makes Nashville-or any other city-a place where music thrives? Shapiro believes the first step is a music policy.
ISSN:0001-2610
2162-4577