[ Music and Art ] [ Main Menu ]
11736
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: The Taylor Swift Exploitation Machine
URL: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/31/the-taylor-swift-exploitation-machine/
|
July 31, 2023 The Taylor Swift Exploitation Machine by Binoy Kampmark Photograph Source: Michael Hicks – CC BY 2.0 She doesn’t love you, she doesn’t care for you, and she doesn’t know you. But does her team pretend to, confecting an image of faux empathy and interest, sorting out the wheat from the chaff. The predatory, fan sucking phenomenon of the Taylor Swift marketing machine is something to behold. Leaving aside the sort of music that will eventually be tinned like a footnote memento of history, Swift has become a corporate phenomenon, a Mammon beast of vast scale and proportion. And like most corporate phenomena, they tend to be predatory. A central aspect to the Swift machine is the use of a ticket sales scheme that is intended to channel tickets to the faithful. The faithful, as it were, are a sad, though dedicated bunch, deluded and easy to please. Like cultish, parched devotees, they must show their stripes by essentially promoting Swift’s brand. Purchasing merchandise related to the star is mandatory. They are required to drivel and slobber on social media about their object of adoration. In doing so, they stand a damn well better chance of securing pre-sale concert tickets. In 2017, this practice was already being noted by such figures as Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds. “The most sickening thing is that this ultra-capitalistic exploitation of fans is beneath a veneer of morality – stopping ticket bots/touts.” In the view of Reynolds, “Bots/touts fleece fans by reselling tickets for a higher price. She’s not stopping them, she is replacing them. She is fleecing her own fans.” The fleecing has been going on for some time. And fans, being the tolerant and hoodwinked creatures that they are, are willing to ignore it. Put it down to the emotional stunting of the global pandemic, the anxieties, the round-the-clock listening to the Swift oeuvre. It is for that very reason that the pop figure is earning more than $13 million from each “Eras” tour engagement ($300 million was raked in from 22 dates), and is set to draw in something like $1 billion when the tour concludes in London next year. It is reported that Swift is charging $254 per ticket (this varies depending on venue and scale), a figure that pales before the resale figures that can reach, quite literally, into thousands of dollars. Seeing her perform will empty your wallet to an amount twice that from her 2018 “Reputation” tour, meaning that the singer has outpaced the industry average increase of $37 during that time. The secondary market of resales, which is sometimes aided by promoters who directly distribute tickets to brokers, will see staggering prices via such outlets as Stubhub. For an arena show in Minneapolis, Swift tickets were going for $900 to $12,000. The killer feature of the Swift business model is that she offers various price differentials, and ruthlessly exploits them. Like an airline seeking a particular type of patron for hardly much in return, she offers the generic, the dull, the back-at-stadium options. But then come the florally couched “VIP packages” that include trinkets, posters, tote bags (do you feel proud of yourself?). For the soppy, brain softened types, gooey at the prospect of greater access to their heroine, this is bound to make the wallets that much easier to purloin. And it shows. Individuals such as one @AirlineFreak (yes, don’t reveal your actual name) spoke about traveling some 8,600 miles to the US for a concert and penning on a Reddit thread confessing to paying “an eye-watering $3,500 something for 2 mid-section tickets for ATL night 1.” While punishing on the expense account, to see Swift was most certainly “worth it.” You get what you deserve. Swift certainly knows a thing or two about cash. That, at least, is the impression we are left with. She avoided a sponsorship deal with the now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, worth $100 million, preferring to place her money in a niche mutual fund. The source for this is hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein, who so happens to know the singer’s daddy, Scott, himself a former broker at Merrill Lynch. If you can trust hedge fund managers of any stripe, Weinstein insists that Swift “invests in discounted closed end funds”. The focus now has been to move the pricing issue away from Swift to those fiendish ticket scalping websites, suggesting that she is somehow innocent about the very beast she has helped create. An article in CHOICE published in late June described it thus: “Limited VIP packages to Swift’s Sydney and Melbourne shows went on sale on Monday. Scalpers wasted no time in exploiting the high demand, seeking to resell the tickets at excessively high mark-ups.” True, but the true reason that such fees are ever contemplated must rest with the besotted fans who nourish the exploitative Swift Entertainment Industry. Forget the living crisis, the leaner budgets, the climate catastrophes. A certain singer is waiting for your cash. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com |
11747
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Taylor Swift Exploitation Machine
URL: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/taylor-swift-asked-to-postpone-la-concerts-18274837.php
|
Taylor Swift performs in LA after Calif. lieutenant governor asks her to postpone Eleni Kounalakis and other officials urged Swift to postpone her LA concerts in solidarity with striking hotel workers Photo of Alec Regimbal Alec Regimbal , SFGATE Aug. 2, 2023 Updated: Aug. 4, 2023 8:28 a.m. Taylor Swift performs at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 29, 2023. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis joined other state politicians in penning an open letter to Swift, urging her to postpone her upcoming concerts in Los Angeles in solidarity with striking hotel workers. Taylor Swift performs at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 29, 2023. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis joined other state politicians in penning an open letter to Swift, urging her to postpone her upcoming concerts in Los Angeles in solidarity with striking hotel workers. TAS Rights Management LATEST Aug. 4, 8:06 a.m. Taylor Swift’s first show in Los Angeles proceeded as planned Thursday evening, despite Lt. Gov Eleni Kounalakis and other state politicians asking Swift to postpone in solidarity with striking hotel workers in the region. Swift and her representatives have not publicly acknowledged the request. Kounalakis doubled down on her stance in a statement to SFGATE on Thursday, hours before Swift’s series of concerts at SoFi Stadium kicked off. “All workers deserve dignity and fair wages,” she said. “I stand with Unite HERE in their fight for a living wage, and I hope we can use this moment to bring attention to the hardworking men and women who are the engine of our economy.” Aug. 2, 1:02 p.m. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis joined other state politicians in penning an open letter to Taylor Swift, urging her to postpone her upcoming concerts in Los Angeles to show solidarity with striking hotel workers. “Hotel workers are fighting for their lives,” the letter said. “They are fighting for a living wage. They have gone on strike. Now, they are asking for your support." Swift, who just wrapped up a two-night stop in the Bay Area last week, is scheduled to hold six concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the first of which is scheduled for Thursday. Kounalakis joined other prominent state officials, including Assemblymember Isaac Bryan — the majority leader in that chamber — as well as state Sens. Dave Min and Maria Elena Durazo in urging Swift to postpone her upcoming concerts. Thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles and Orange County walked off the job last month after union members, represented by Unite Here Local 11, voted to authorize a strike. The workers are asking for better pay, as well as a better pension plan and improved health care benefits. They’re also asking their employers to hire more workers so that daily workloads become more manageable. Kounalakis and others argued that hotels are making more money than ever, but said that hasn’t yet been reflected in how they compensate workers. “Your shows make our region’s hotels a lot of money,” the letter said. “In Los Angeles, hotels are doubling and tripling what they charge because you are coming. The hotels are making more money than ever, but many workers cannot afford to live close to where they work. Some of them even sleep in their cars between shifts. Others are at risk of losing their home.” A representative for Swift did not immediately reply to a request for comment. |
Responses:
None
11740
From: kay.so.or, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Taylor Swift Exploitation Machine
| what????....you have got to kidding me!!!!its like the lemmings following the pied piper!!!oye |
Responses:
None
11737
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Taylor Swift Exploitation Machine
|
The human-behavior phenomena generated (especially) by the past ten years or so...surging & skewing hugely with the arrival of DJT and then covid, now culminating in a brand-new melange of off-the-charts, previously unimaginable observations...I foresee to be one of the best, most popular historical files from these times that people of the future will be clamoring to read... Such vast, deeply ripe & fertile fields rife within our Now to weave from, omg...lol... The numerous horror subfiles might need to be set aside, by some, of course...but the rest? Whoa, nothing ever before and nothing ever again will reach the strata of High, Rarified Entertainment these times will provide the future...provided your sense of humor is wired for the unimaginable... ;) |
Responses:
None
[ Music and Art ] [ Main Menu ]