The Artist Empowerment Era
This memo is presented by Hangout.
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The artist empowerment era
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been celebrated for many reasons, but the reason rarely mentioned is its perfect timing. The world’s most commercially successful pop star captured the post-pandemic demand for live music. She leveraged the public support gained from her master's ownership saga and re-recorded albums. Each factor helped create the most lucrative concert tour of all time.
For Swift, the planets aligned like a cosmic force. Sure, she’s been called out for cash grabs in recent years. Whether those critiques are valid is a topic for another day, but those critiques have yet to limit her rise.
Swift’s touring success, much like her deals with TikTok, AMC, and Universal Music Group, are symbols of the artist empowerment era. Today’s superstar artists have more leverage than ever before. They have so much power that they can quickly shake off their missteps. Their power may not last forever, but it lasts longer than the artists who came before them.
Dua Lipa fans may not have been radically optimized by her latest album but she still sold out two nights at Wembley Stadium in 2025. Ariana Grande’s eternal sunshine album is an afterthought compared to her elaborate promotional run for Wicked. Drake may have lost his rap beef to Kendrick Lamar, but despite the L he took and his odd legal decisions, he still has more Spotify Monthly Listeners than most artists, including Kendrick. There’s never been a better time for megastars to release their “monetizable mid.”
Most top artists have lucrative licensing agreements with their record labels. The superstars can make more money from touring their ever before. So much money that headlining Coachella may be a pay cut from their nightly guarantee from a stadium tour. And some of these stars make most of their money from other businesses. Rihanna used the Super Bowl halftime show to release new Fenty products instead of a new album or tour. I covered this topic a few years ago, but the power has shifted even more in the artist’s favor.
“Artist empowerment” is a play on the NBA’s player empowerment era, but artist empowerment now exceeds player empowerment. The most leveraged NBA superstars have “fire the head coach” power. LeBron James has “draft my son on my team” leverage. But no NBA player has “bypass the owners, I’ll do my own deal” leverage. That’s where music’s biggest stars are at.
The box-ification of music
The music industry used to operate like the UFC. The best talent in the world worked for the organizations. The UFC's biggest stars over the years, like Jon Jones and Conor McGregor, made good money in their careers. But many others complained about the low pay and high frequency of matches. The real money was made by the owners, like UFC founder and CEO Dana White and Endeavor CEO Ari Emmanuel.
No UFC fighter is bigger than the company. Each fight starts with the league name and the numbered event. It was “UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic” not the other way around.
Similarly, the major labels maintained control and ownership over artists and their music for decades. This led to countless complaints from artists big and small. But as culture shifted and artists gained leverage in the streaming and social media, music became less like the UFC. Instead, music did a complete 180 and became more like boxing. At a prize fight boxing match, the boxers call the shots.
Look at Floyd Mayweather’s career. He fought Manny Pacquiao six years later than most fans wished he had. When the two finally fought in 2015, Pacquiao was slower, older, and had already been knocked out. Floyd however, hadn’t lost a step in the ring and gained even more control over the economics of the match. Mayweather Promotions got a cut of every pay-per-view buy, tickets sold at the gate, concession sales at the venue, international broadcast rights, and more. That’s that Taylor Swift type of dealmaking.
And when Mayweather realized that the money would come regardless of who he fought, he took full advantage. He boxed against UFC fighter Conor McGregor, YouTuber Logan Paul, and others in exhibition matches. Floyd finished his boxing career undefeated but fought his fair share of “monetizable mid” along the way.
Where the drive comes from
When entertainers of all kinds no longer need to deliver the highest quality product to reach the same financial success, the drive to succeed at the highest levels needs to come from elsewhere.
In music, unlike boxing though, the ways to make a living are so broad that the highest quality product just looks different. Taylor Swift’s recent albums may not hit like her albums ten years ago did, but she put out one of the highest quality concert tours that live entertainment has seen. The same for Ariana Grande’s acting or Kendrick Lamar’s showmanship on stage. It just looks different.
Plus, this is still an ego-driven industry. Artist empowerment can reign supreme for the superstars, but once wealth and power are table stakes, many may still be driven by the urge to be #1, the best, the award winner, or any other top accolade. It may not operate in the same exact way. But for some, the urge will always be there.
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