Why don’t Taylor Swift and her record label, Universal Music Group, see eye-to-eye on TikTok? They have competing incentives. Universal Music Group’s role is to maximize revenue from recorded music, publishing (via Universal Music Publishing Group), and merchandise. But Taylor, like most artists, have other focuses beyond album sales and don’t want to cut off a promotional opportunity to boost those. TikTok is a big reason why The Eras Tour became billion-dollar phenomenon. It was a promotional engine for her tour and concert film. I’m sure Taylor would welcome higher payouts from TikTok but not at the expense of not being able to use it when she releases a new album. According to Billboard data, Taylor’s recorded music, publishing, and merch combined accounted for 37% of the $1.82 billion that she generated in 2023. Plus, Universal Music Group shares a stake in Swift’s recorded music revenue with Shamrock Capital, which currently owns the original versions of Taylor’s first six albums. Nearly 50% of Taylor’s 2023 generated revenue came from The Eras Tour. Yes, touring has higher expenses than recorded music, but Taylor also generated another 14% of her revenue from The Eras Tour’s concert film. This dynamic isn’t unique to Taylor. Most artists today generate more revenue from live performances than from royalties. It creates tension in situations like Universal’s dispute with TikTok. We covered this topic in our new Trapital episode “What Taylor Swift’s Return to TikTok Means for Universal Music Group.” Listen to Tatiana Cirisano and I break it all down wherever you get podcasts! What are your thoughts on this move?

Tomorrow’s Trapital episode is a deep dive on Taylor Swift’s move to put her music back on TikTok despite her label Universal Music Group keeping its music off of TikTok. What really went down between Taylor Swift and UMG? What does this mean for UMG-TikTok? We have some answers! New episode with me and Tatiana Cirisano comes out tomorrow!

What does the future hold for Ciroc, Revolt, Sean John, and Bad Boy Entertainment after the Diddy allegations? Zack O'Malley Greenburg and I discuss on the latest Trapital episode https://lnkd.in/eNt24PS4

The story of Coachella’s rise could be a movie. In 1999, it sold just 25,000 tickets, lost $1M+, and almost went out of business. It’s now an institution in music culture. This year’s festival will likely gross well over $100 million with more than 125,000 fans attending per day. Today’s festival may easily generate 100x the revenue that it did in its first event in 1999. Coachella has evolved from an alternative rock meet-up to a mainstream pop ensemble. It’s followed the common societal trend in the internet age: nerd culture became mainstream culture. This tracks with the rise in mainstream popularity of things like fantasy football, Comic-Con, video games, Formula 1, and even retail investing. But unlike other trends and even other festivals, Coachella has developed a brand that can sell itself. The festival could sell out tickets before announcing a lineup if it wanted to. In the early 2010s, the festival became a who’s who for celebrity attendance. Attending is a flex. We see influencers, fashion, and activations there regardless of who performs on stage. Now, in a post-pandemic environment, the biggest stars make more money than ever on their own tours. It may harder to attract Beyonce - Taylor Swift level stars, but the next level of stars have taken the helm. If you like breakdowns like this, check out Trapital! It's our free newsletter that keeps you up on the business of music and entertainment. Sign up here and I'll send you our next memo: https://lnkd.in/dqbqnWr8 If you have been to Coachella, what do you enjoy most about the festival?

In the past decade, tons of new music festivals have started and canceled. Here are a few reasons why this happened. Established festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo became even more popular in the early 2010s with millennials. This generation places a high value on experiences. There’s also an added boost for experiences that are worthy of posting about on Instagram. That, plus the demand for live music grew when music became readily available online. Once Coachella expanded to two weekends in the early 2010s, and soon became an $100M+ revenue event, others saw an opportunity to do the same. But the new festival boom also grew due to a less discussed factor— the low interest rate environment of the 2010s. It was cheaper than ever for companies to borrow money. Hundreds of aspiring festival organizers received huge lines of credit to launch shows. These festivals could offer artists higher guarantees than what they earn from a standalone show. With the relatively low barriers to entry, these festivals popped up everywhere, but they weren’t sustainable. The annual draw for the longstanding festivals take time to build! I took Coachella 10+ years to become the institution it is today. How many new festival organizers, and their deep-pocketed backers, are willing to wait that long? Even if they are patient, it’s harder to outlast rising costs for inflation, production, and the oversaturation that has led to repetitive lineups. It all makes the post-pandemic return tougher for a lot of shows that lost momentum due to COVID-19. Plus, the mega superstars now earn more money from their solo tours than they did pre-pandemic. There’s less incentive for Beyonce and Taylor Swift to headline a festival. We’ve now lost festivals like Made In America, Firefly, Beale Street Music Festival, and countless others. The power law has kicked in. Major shows like Lollapalooza and Glastonbury can thrive, but the newcomers need to have deep pockets, unique lineups or experiences, and plenty of runway. We talked about this in more depth on our Trapital episode “Do Music Festivals Have a Superstar Problem?” So check it out if you haven’t yet. What do you think the future looks like for new music festival?

Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour grossed $45M from 3 shows at Sofi Stadium in LA. Why would she ever headline another festival?

Festival season is here. On this week's Trapital episode, we’re keeping it real: Music festivals have a superstar problem. In pre-pandemic times, the Coachella headliner fee, $4-5M per weekend, could rival what the top artists in the world could get from a single show on their own tours. But when artists like Beyonce and Taylor Swift can now make multiple times that from their own stadium tours, what do they need from Coachella? We break this all down on the latest episode of Trapital. Thanks Tatiana Cirisano for joining me on this one! Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eRftVBqv

Tax season is here. I wanted to give a quick shoutout to a friend who is still accepting new clients in case you're looking for an option before deadline! My friend Natan Castiel runs Steed, a customized practice that can be helpful those in entertainment and creative sectors where a standard cookie-cutter option won’t work as well. They've worked with execs at places like Spotify and UnitedMasters. You likely wear multiple hats and will need a solution that fits all of those hats. If not, you can lose out on money each year. They are giving out free consultations if you want to chat more. I included a link in my comments below.

Last year, Taylor Swift and Beyonce won at the box office with their concert films. Which other artists can replicate that? We answered that in a deep dive Trapital essay. Jimmy Stone from Alderbrook wrote a piece for us "The Rise of Concert Films" that answers this question. Here are a few highlights from his piece: "As a result, both [Beyonce and Taylor Swift] reportedly received an unprecedented 50% of ticket sales – a much higher split than the traditional creator/studio deal. "For comparison, actor Tom Cruise reportedly received just over 5% of Top Gun: Maverick’s gross ticket sales, equaling ~10% of film studio Paramount’s ~50% split of gross sales after the theaters got their ~50% cut. Cutting the studio from the split equation makes the concert film genre much more lucrative for artists." "All signs indicate the concert movie trend will continue over the next few years. On a recent earnings call, AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron confirmed as much... I think it makes sense for pop genre artists like Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Billie Eilish to explore concert films... I also wouldn’t be surprised to see top-charting artists in other genres – such as hip-hop (e.g., Drake), Latin (e.g., Bad Bunny), and Country (e.g., Morgan Wallen) – that haven’t historically been associated with top grossing concert movie projects." It was a great piece that breaks down the past, present, and future of these deals. Highly recommend out his full piece! Link in the comments below. Which other artists would have a commercially successful concert film at the box office?