Could Oasis add as much value as Taylor Swift to the UK economy?
It’s estimated that Taylor Swift’s recent Eras tour added almost £1bn to UK spending in 2024. The astonishing projection came from Barclays Bank who estimated each fan would spend an average of £848 per head on tickets, travel, accommodation and outfits.
The Oasis reunion is sold out instantly and is expected to bring in a sizeable chunk of revenue to the UK economy as well as the Gallagher brothers. But will they get close to Swiftie’s £1bn?
Their very different demographic and geographic appeal gives us the likely answer.
The demand for Oasis tickets was huge, and they weren’t cheap either. Many will be resold on the black market or through official resellers for a significant mark up. They have constrained the tour to just 17 dates so far, all in the UK and Ireland, with every date completely sold out!
It’s no secret that Noel has recently divorced and it’s hard not to associate this with the decision to tour as Oasis once more. Reports suggest it cost him £20m plus their £8m family home. He held out for many years before changing his mind this year. His brother, who last divorced in 2013 with legal bills of over £800,000 alone, has been keen on a reunion for some time.
The tour pay-off is rumoured to be £50m+. Is it all about earning back money lost from a divorce? Possibly, but it isn’t the first time the brothers have divorced. They separated from their first wives, Patsy Kensit and Meg Mathews, in 2000, In 2002 Liam claimed the experience brought them closer together. Perhaps their anger has another focus these days as well, leaving just enough tolerance for each other to reform. Regardless, nobody is expecting tickets to be cheap and, whatever the underlying motives, they will want to make as much money from the tour as possible.
Nostalgia for Oasis is strong, and probably more as a live band experience which evoked an era than just the songs. They are associated with Britpop, and a time when young people in the UK felt positive change. New Labour hung onto the coat tails of an incredible market bull run right up to its spectacular crash in the credit crunch of 2007. The festival scene exploded, electronics became cheap and affordable, and there was a heady cocktail of musical genres collaborating and bringing different music fans together. The Gallagher brothers, known for straight up guitar rock, rolled with it, appearing on records from dance artists such as Unkle and The Chemical Brothers. In our post-pandemic world a huge Oasis gig may appeal to a more disconnected generation who crave that kind of contact, but the audience will still skew heavily towards middle-aged affluent gig goers who are the target audience for many modern festivals.
Where Swift will always have an edge on Oasis is the breadth of her fan base. Her appeal to under 18s means she will also attract affluent parents happy to spend on travel to somewhere interesting, better hotels when they get there, and perks to make the experience a bit more special. Barclays said that the average spend on tickets was £206 with 14% of people spending more than £400 on VIP perks. On average £121 was spent on hotels and £111 on travel. Swift attracted foreign tourism to the UK as well. Unlike Oasis, who’s support is very much embedded in the UK, Swift has international appeal and the lack of competing gigs in Europe meant the UK was a major destination for her fans. Of the 45 European tour dates, 16 were in the UK and Ireland. Demand comfortably outstripped supply. Even US fans travelled to the UK to catch a glimpse of the star. US audiences typically pay higher prices for music and sporting experiences so the costs would not put them off.
There seems to be no limit to Swift’s ability to generate revenue from her audience in terms of age, geography or wallet size. She is also still making records, and will do so for years to come. Forbes announced in April that she was the first artist to make over £1bn from music and touring alone. Others have become billionaires from other spin off business interests, such as beauty products or drinks brands, but she is the first to make it from songwriting. Oasis are now a heritage act, with no new material to release, and at a point in their career where “this is a new song” is the audience’s cue for a toilet break. There is also the reasonable assumption that they will fall out and split up again.
So whilst Oasis will be the rock and roll stars of next summer, driving up sales of cigarettes and alcohol, Taylor Swift is the true market leader by some way and possibly for some time to come.
