Say how much? Taylor Swift ticket content..

The question is how much tax does the Taylor Swift concern pay to the UK govt?

Well all the costs associated with staging the events will attract VAT – so quite a lot in that alone.

But I’d guess Swifty pays her tax as an American.

@pisco We have two Swifty daughters and said no. We said we weren’t spending the cost of a family holiday on this.

Thing that’s particularly pissing me off at the moment is the endless emails about ‘buy a special edition CD and win the chance to buy tickets’

https://www.investopedia.com/swiftonomics-definition-8601178

There’s even a buzzword for it.

This is earnings in the UK so tax is liable.

Well done all the people who don’t like her music , but I’d remember taste is subjective and a lot of dad rock, Pink FLoyd etc is pretty mediocre at best

Yea, but then you’d have to sit through a U2 concert.

I sat through a U2 gig once. Big arena gig, bazillion people.

They were a fairly polished live act.

They were miles away, the other side of a bazillion people. The sound was utter shoot, mostly echo.

Looked ok for the few right at the front.

Other gigs were available, and more fun.

Well done all the people who don’t like her music

I neither like nor dislike, but I’ll take the complement.

It’s cruising along the middle of the road, musical porridge, of minimum flavour.

I live about 5 miles from Pilton , my mate can’t get his head round that I’ve never been even though I enjoy a lot of different music . I just CBA with the rigamarole of trying to get tickets , trying to get in and out of the site trudging around for hours and that’s before you factor in the mud 🙄

My collegue ended up seeing Nickleback at Mancheser Arena the other week…VIP £450 each*

Nickleback!!!!!!!!!! But he did have a 5 course tapas style meal included

*He was given them buy a high flying mate

…and they say opera is elitist.

Some of her songs are rather good but then I only listen to whatever is available to me free online.

As long as it is UK taxed, she can charge as much as she likes.

For the parents, just spend the money and enjoy the moment in life (pain of spending money LOL!) .  See the family happy and high on Swift music LOL!

The maximum price I paid for a concert was £25 to £30 for a Metallica concert at old Wembley Stadium in 90s.  Very good sound system.  Brilliant concert.

I’ve not been to a gig for years, last time I probably paid £35 to see Editors per Covid. I really wanted to see Pearl Jam in Manchester, could believe they wanted nearly £190, decided I could get 3 nights in the Tweed Valley instead of 2 tickets for me and the Mrs, so did that instead!

Madness, for the price of a VIP ticket you could have a nice week in the alps riding bikes 😉

but I’d remember taste is subjective and a lot of dad rock, Pink FLoyd etc is pretty mediocre at best

TBF, I *would* pay £700 to see Pink Floyd (with both Dave Gilmore and Roger Waters playing) but that ain’t gonna happen any time soon.

Well done all the people who don’t like her music

Even if she was the best thing I’d ever heard, I’d ditch her music for ripping off us fans with those gig prices. Plenty of other pop shit to listen to.

TBF, I *would* pay £700 to see Pink Floyd

I was at Live-8 in 2008, I wouldn’t

Artists are completely taking the piss with ticket prices. Out of interest I googled how much Michael Jackson tickets were back in the 90s and this photo popped up – works out at £53.00 accounting for inflation, and he certainly didn’t skimp on the ‘show’ element of a gig.

MJ back then was easily as big as Taylor Swift is now, if not bigger.

I can hear it from my house but would love to go. If tickets on Viagogo drop below £100 on the day I’ll be off like a shot – it’ll be fun, why not? People were spending that sort of money to see American has-been Bruce Springsteen at Murrayfield last year and there wasn’t a thread about that.

Blimey. My one and only proper large scale gig was to see Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull (plus some other bands) at the old Wembley Stadium. Ticket price of £20. For context we were living in SW London and paying £120 a month each for rent.

I think some of this may be the Live Nation/Ticketmaster pricing models. Happy to be corrected but there’s some buzz about them using an algorithm that ups the price as the demand ramps up.

They’re also being sued in the US over the monopoly they hold.

Glad I don’t have kids and or Swifties to fund at the price. 😂

My youngest daughter is going to the Wembley show –  Ticket was about £175 I think, money well spent as its going to be the event of a lifetime for her. She is looking forward to it far more than our much more expensive summer holiday.

I started to struggle when tickets were going past £100 for ‘average’ acts. I wanted to see Kiss on their last tour but decided not to when I saw they were wanting £130-ish for average seats. By comparison, Iron Maiden were still ‘only’ £80 the last time I saw them (last year).

Artists are completely taking the piss with ticket prices. Out of interest I googled how much Michael Jackson tickets were back in the 90s and this photo popped up – works out at £53.00 accounting for inflation, and he certainly didn’t skimp on the ‘show’ element of a gig.

This is a very good point. Collectively we can’t rely on our fellow plebs to boycott this stuff until prices are sane again – so I guess you suck it up or miss out*

The $/£2 billion mentioned above – gross or net? I’d imagine it’s not cheap to put on a world tour.

*miss out is subjective!

Big-scale tours are horrendously expensive to put on, and something like TS is as much about an incredible stage show as the music, so I can kind of see how £200 is vaguely justified. (the £700 for “VIP” is just piss-taking though, but if people are willing to pay it…)

What I really can’t justify is why someone like Elton John was charging £300+ for tickets – it’s not like he was grooving around on stage to elaborately choreographed dances with lasers & giant robots. That was just greed.

Last “big” gig I saw was the greatest band in the world, Tenacious D, at the O2 last year. Just two dudes and a band on stage doing their thing. £80 (actually for pretty good rather than the cheapest/worst seats!) still expensive I guess but much more reasonable!

A lot of this will be to cover the gap between what the streaming services pay the artists and what they used to get from selling physical media. Most of them pay a small fraction of a penny per stream. Spotify is the worst so I’ve heard.

That’s like saying you’ve never heard any Beatles songs – nigh on impossible.

I’ve never knowingly heard any Taylor Swift stuff.

Do quite like Billie Eilish though.

so I guess you suck it up or miss out*

I’ve chosen to miss out on Foo Fighters next weekend even though I had a ticket!  I just can’t be arsed with the faff of getting there and dealing with forty thousand folk.

…and I’ve got a bowls match on! 🤣

My wife and niece are still going though.

A lot of this will be to cover the gap between what the streaming services pay the artists

yeah poor old Swifty, only earned $100 from Spotify alone in 2023 😂

Ticket was about £175 I think, money well spent as its going to be the event of a lifetime for her

see this I don’t get. I’ve seen loads and loads of bands in my days, from big stadium gigs that were all a bit ‘meh’, to smaller gigs that were absolutely ace

but none of them got anywhere close to been described as ‘the event of a lifetime’… are the ‘Swifties’ really some kind of cult, or are they that die hard..

I should point out my OH daughter has described the event in very similar terms to your daughter. So maybe I’m just old!

but none of them got anywhere close to been described as ‘the event of a lifetime’

It’s all relative to your age! It probably is the biggest event of her lifetime.

yeah poor old Swifty, only earned $100 from Spotify alone in 2023

From 26 Billion streams. I mean, that is an awful lot of folks listening to her music. Is she not entitled to a good share of it?

of course she is. The point is, it’s a hell of a lot of money, so the argument that the very biggest artists need to charge sky-high ticket prices in order to “top up” their income is totally invalid.

Madonna was 500 quid in barcelona, I thought how nice 500 for a gig, accom and maybe travel….errr 500 a ticket.

Max I ve ever paid was 80 for james in Edinburgh, well worth it.

Royal opera house is 30-40, though you can pay 200 if you want.

but none of them got anywhere close to been described as ‘the event of a lifetime’

Some of mine definitely have. Last one was couple of years ago at Fabric in London. Guess it depends on how much you value live music in your life.

They aren’t going on holiday this year.

I’m astounded at what people will pay to go on holiday and sit in the sun beside a noisy pool!  My daughter went to a Harry Styles concert at some considerable expense (but not £700!) and the overall experience and build up to it lasted several days – probably more so than if she had been going to some Spanish beach for a week.  You can listen to taylor any time you want at home for (basically) free.  Or you can go and listen to her live and experience the “vibe” and pay heavily to be there.  Anyone who doesn’t get that – have you ever entered a sportif?  You could have ridden that same route the weekend before/after for free but paid a lot to be part of the experience.

Anyone saying “I remember when U2 cost £25” has presumably been under a stone for the last 30 years.  I believe the modern response is, “OK, boomer”.

The question is how much tax does the Taylor Swift concern pay to the UK govt?

I don’t think that is the question at all – but as a bare minimum £233 of the price the OP’s partner paid was VAT.  Murrayfield stadium is presumably making a tidy profit as the venue as will all the places providing food, staging, security staff etc.  They in turn will pay corporation tax on their profits, and their staff will be paying tax and NI (and the employer paying 13.8% NI too).  Then Edinburgh hoteliers, taxi drivers, restaurants etc will be doing nicely out of it and paying tax too.  It will be a significant contribution to UK tax for a few nights of music!

The big artists are slightly different,but with streaming and a lot of ‘da yoof’ wanting ‘free’ music ,gigs(and merch) are often the only way (for some bands)of making  any money. It’s like moaning about the price of cake in Starbucks,not such a big deal when you factor in the overheads and staff costs.

Barclays did a report on it earlier this year to suggest UK spending would be boosted by almost £1bn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czd88lxe8p2o.amp

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the sort of money I’d spend – but friends of mine have and have been talking about it for months. I’ve just spent £1500 on a Brompton, and no one would bat an eyelid here. Whatever is your vibe. Hope people have a fantastic time.

Can’t remember the last gig I went to, The Mission at Exeter uni, The Jam farewell tour at the Cornwall coliseum or Dire straits live in ’85 at Shepton Mallet (I remember it being £5.50 including coach travel)

Couldn’t see the value in concerts after that.

I’ve just spent £1500 on a Brompton, and no one would bat an eyelid here

Spending cash on bike or wheels that potentially lasts for years and possibly saves you money is very different than burning through lots of cash on an event that lasts a few hours and will probably be repeated a year later when the next gig turns up?

I was at a festival in the summer watching Four-Tet and he dropped a bootleg of a Taylor Swift song and the crowd (notably younger than this aged raver) went ballistic. My GF and I couldn’t work out why, it wasn’t a particularly good track and it was a proper dance music festival so the crowds were mostly wasted clubbers, but the response was crazy. Her appeal is huge, just evidently not to middle aged grumps.

I would b curious to know how much these tours cost to put on. Venue hire, sounds systems states , lighting, travel roadies etc it must hugely expensive.  Still she didn’t get rich by doing gigs cheap, but if fans pay that upto them.