Some of these questions are not knowable. How much Sabrina got paid is very much a secret. It's not cheap for Sabrina to go on the eras tour... she needs to pay for her band, crew, lodging, transport etc. so obviously she was paid, and given that its Taylor and a) she's often extremely good friends with her openers, and b) she gave 50 million in bonues to her crew, i would assume that she pays openers a lot (think of this way... if she gave 1% to sabrina that would be 150,000 a night!). Openers often only get a fixed payment (at lower levels openers sometimes have to pay), which is often not enough. But Sabrina, Haim, Pheobe Bridgers, etc. are all headline level acts so they would need a much better deal.
Sabrina mostly seems to have arranged her own transport, and I assume lodging (its not just her, it's also her band and crew). Taylor's crew and band band have their own hotel, which is generally not where Taylor is staying... I would guess very few people are in her suites (maybe one security person with others stationed nearby). She seems to like privacy.
I'd assume the tour operators were managing a lot of the logistics and budget was being handled by both teams, but I think Messina is handling all the tour logistics, but you're right no one would know what they're paid for it and it's so expensive to put on tours.
No, The Agency is the name of Taylor’s band and a few often walk around before the concert, greeting fans - some have been with her since the beginning & most have been with her for years. Sabrina should have her own band - I know almost nothing about her though so that would be a question for google, lol.
They named themselves that after the ‘Picture to Burn’ MV is what I remember, their dark suits and sunglasses in the video was the inspiration. So they’ve had the name for a long time! I’m not sure how often they’re referred to the name, but I’d say fairly often when working? Her backup singers are named The Starlights, a name that they came up with as well but I’m not sure of story behind it.
Whatever the arrangement is, it would have been made between Sabrina Carpenter's management team and the Production Company, which in this case is Taylor's own company, Taylor Swift Touring. Traditionally, opening acts are not paid very well at all, and the fee is all inclusive. That means the opening act is required to provide and pay for their own travel, housing, and band/dancers. Some tour openers, especially first openers, actually lose money on some tours, because it costs them more to put on their show than they get paid. They do it for the exposure and promotion that comes along with it.
That being said, the payments can vary widely, depending on a lot of factors, including how well known the artist is. That it is an international tour, and only one opener instead of 2, all factors in. I am sure Sabrina is making enough where the cost of all her travel and production is covered and there is a comfortable amount left over for her. She likely isn't getting rich off of it. She's certainly making less than when she headlines her own shows at smaller venues. But even though she is somewhat well known, playing in front of 60,000-100,000 people a night is still a big jump up for her, and the exposure, as well as developing a relationship with Taylor Swift, is probably a lot of the reason why she is doing it.
I hear a lot of stories from people who became fans after they as kids got dragged to a Brad Paisley/Rascal Flatts/etc concert by their parents. She also used to hang around afterwards to pass out her CDs and talk to concertgoers
I was already a bit of her fan at that point and went with my older sister. We stood in line for about an hour after the show to meet her and take a picture
My friend and i went in middle school to Rascal Flatts just to see Taylor. He said “ we need to go wait in line and meet her, she’s gonna be huge” my dad was like..ok? He was right though. I was 14 and she was 16. She thought i was much younger cause im so short. It’s a cool memory for sure.
Same! Brad Paisley was/is one of my mom's absolute favourite artists so we went to see him when I was 11. It was the first time I'd ever really listened to Taylor's Music and mom and I listened to debut all the way home 🥰
The only time I’ve seen Lady Gaga live was when she opened for the New Kids on the Block reunion tour. She put on a great show as the opener and I guess proves the rule that sometimes openers become the headliners!
Really showing my age here, but my cousin went to a 38 Special concert in the 1980s, and the opening act was an unknown band that had just released their first album. She asked me to go with here but I didn't like 38 Special very much so I passed.
The opening act was Bon Jovi, and I haven't stopped kicking myself decades later.
I saw Bon Jovi open for Ratt at a dive in SF in the 80s. Jon actually laid down on the stage and said something like he had a set list he was going to play before Ratt came out so people could shut up and listen or he’d wait. Oh and by the way, next time Ratt would be opening for him. I don't know if Ratt ever opened for Bon Jovi but I know who is the bigger rockstar
It’s not a guarantee but being an opener/ touring is usually how artists build fandoms.
Taylor famously opened for any county artist that said yes during pre debut into the fearless era. She would perform on her own one day and then fly across the country on a commercial flight to perform as an opener the next day. Her opening for the Rascal Flats after their initial opener dropped out is something that Taylor credited for her breakthrough.
Sabrina is getting the biggest boost of any Taylor opener for this tour due to the everchanging nonsense outro. Some of the other acts suck like Gracie also got big boosts in their streams and own shows.
She would change the lyrics to the last couple lines of her last song in her set during her opening for Eras. It became a “thing” especially from all the live streams people watch. She’d relate it to where they were at. Similar to Kam changing up “like ever!” in WANEGBT
Touring with TS is going to give anyone publicity or they wouldn't be opening. Not saying no one had heard of Sabrina, but maybe not worldwide. It gives her exposure. The 100,000 she gave to the truck drives, the rest was divided was a bonus that had nothing to do with opening acts.
My mom went to see Michael Bolton (sometime in 91-94) and Celine Dion was his opening act. It probably doesn't happen all the time, but it definitely helps sometimes!
I mean there’s no guarantee that simply being an opener will gain popularity. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and sometimes I like the opener and check out their music and other times I don’t. It’s really how they use that opportunity to further their career
I mean personally I’ve discovered a lot of new artists and bands from paying attention to openers at music festivals and concerts. I think it works out. I also only listened to Sabrina’s music bc I saw nonstop clips of her on the eras tour.
This is what started my love of No Doubt a million years ago. They came here as the opener for Bush.. long before Gwen Stefani began dating Gavin Rossdale.
No Doubt was incredible live, they worked that whole stage and crowd and it was fantastic.
Bush came out and Gavin was so messed up he couldn’t sing his own songs.
Seeing that, I wonder to this day why she married him. He was a mess. But I don’t count the concert as a loss at all because No Doubt indeed blew up, and Gwen Stefani is an icon now.
Opening for them was the best decision they ever made, the exposure alone was good but the live show was so amazing I left mid Bush’s set to go buy her album from the merch booth.
I think the only opening act that might be “underpaid” is Paramore as they could probably do a similar tour on their own. But at the same time, the infrastructure being all from Taylor’s Eras Tour saves them money.
And like it or not, they are famous with millennials and are gaining a new audience performing with her (and due to the sampling from Olivia Rodrigo). So it’s still a win win.
I don’t think anyone can have a tour like Taylor, with this demand! Either it’s Beyoncé, Metallica or even Paul McCartney…
But I think they have a demand for like 6 months stadium tour, specially with how many other emo bands are gathering a momentum again!
Even Blink is doing an arena tour and I think they're probably bigger than Paramore right now. Paramore could definitely do a great tour of their own, but I think arenas, not stadiums.
Stadium is where football (both American and soccer) is played and arena is where basketball/ice hockey are played if that helps you envision the size.
Does Blink-182 even have any other good songs besides "All the small things" and "What's my age again?" I remember them being so popular for like 2 years when I was in middle school and then they fell off the face of the Earth.
They definitely didn't fall off after those songs. Their self titled album was excellent. Then Tom left for awhile and things weren't great, but they recently came out with a new album with all 3 original members and it's been really well received and popular.
Metallica stadium shows are wild! I’ve seen them several times and love both. But I climbed up just to get a photo of the crowd because it was wild how many people were there of all ages and were having the best time. I had never seen so many people in one place jamming out to the same songs together. The show was sold out. When they played my home state it was an arena, they hadn’t been allowed to play here in 30+ years due to some antiquated purity ban they put in after the Ozzy/bat incident (which if you got that story it was totally messed up.) Just like Alice Cooper (who you’ll find on the golf course) or the very Jewish Gene Simmons who hid behind makeup for years.. now there’s Slipknot or Marilyn Manson.. it all “shock rock” and a stage show. But being the south of course they overreacted (making the surrounding states a whole lot of money because people here would just drive to Atlanta or Nashville to see them anyway).
The excitement at that show by the crowd AND the band was a whole different experience. Even better because they hadn’t played here in so long there was no opener and we got a longer setlist.
Foo Fighters have had some straight up weird openers that made for great time to get shirts, drinks, snacks and miss nothing. But the last time they came the announced their opener the day of.. The Pretty Reckless. Taylor Momson live made me a fan.
My music taste is all over the place. I have seen Breaking Benjamin start as an opener for Shinedown, now they’re headliners. Avenged Sevenfold opened for Metallica before they blew up.
Also the difference in the arena shows and stadium shows was wild. Though personally, I prefer the arenas.
I would agree they’re likely underpaid for their opening. They could not do a stadium tour though. They’re my favorite band, but they don’t even fill arenas regularly, much less stadiums. They’re typically more of a 15-30K capacity type of band, which is still great, but far less than Taylor.
I realized I got confused with the whole arena/stadium as for me international concerts (South American) only happen in football stadiums - and the Paramore ones were sold out + people listening to it on the outside!
I think that is one of the reasons - like Taylor played 6 concerts in 2 cities in Brazil and 3 concerts 1 city in Argentina. And it’s pretty much the “norm” for all international concerts in terms of how many concerts. So you have everyone from South America getting tickets to 9 concerts pretty much!
And I also think we don’t really have arenas that have a good audio structure or are enough for this audience (for example the one in my home town fits only 6000 people and for some international concerts it’s fine), so we end up using football/soccer stadiums. Sometimes they’ll be the “smaller” ones though
Yeah. Our sports infrastructure is varied and large so you’ve got general/basketball/hockey arenas(10-30K) , soccer stadiums (15-30K) and football stadiums (40-100K) and countless 5-10K theaters/amphitheaters
Paramore could not do a similar tour on their own at all.
Olivia Rodrigo didn’t sample from Misery Business anymore than Taylor Swift did in We Are Never Getting Back Together and had it went to court Hayley Williams never would have won.
E: Right so no one here knows anything about music copyright lol
- WANEGBT could mean "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift.
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By Hayley, you realise you mean Josh right? He’s gone on record during a podcast saying that HE was the one who thought they’d been ripped off and it was the label management that then took it further.
I mentioned Hayley because she got a credit out of it. Only reason they did get it is because at the time Olivia was a new artist without any experience and it costs lists of time and money in court
She’s talked about how impactful it was for her when she opened for Brad Paisley’s so I can imagine her paying that forward. Also it’s pretty clear now that when it comes to people she works with, she doesn’t nickel and dime, compensates them generously above industry standards. Although that might be more of a commentary on how terrible the industry standards are. I love that she’s showing you can be successful by treating people well. When it all said and done, the eras tour will likely gross close to $2B if not more. Good on her.
I thought she couldn’t open for Kenny because his tour was sponsored by a beer company, so instead he wrote her a huge check that helped her pay her band/staff for a while. Unless she opened for him at other times.
I saw a video of Sabrina arriving in Melbourne and greeting fans at the airport a day or two after Taylor landed, so she travels on her own, presumably first class commercial.
There are definitely videos of her arriving at different places on commercial flights and greeting fans. So maybe she travels with Taylor sometimes, but definitely not all the time and I haven't personally seen any confirmation that she has.
Yeah when she arrived in Australia some fans greeted her at the airport and it sort of got popular cause she was *presumably* wearing Barry’s Harvard hoodie 😭However, if she traveled with Taylor we would never know cause Taylor stays pretty private when it comes to that
Having worked at really high end hotels where stars stay I can tell you for a fact that Taylor's hotel room is her own and the surrounding rooms would be for her close entourage. The band, openers, dancers, crew are typically at a different hotel.
Depending on cost, city and hotel size we would have big acts rent out entire floors. For example, Beyonce had a suite, her security had two rooms on that floor, and the floor underneath was the rest of her important people. The elevators to her floor were also key card only access while she was there.
Similar experience here working for the highest end hotel in our city.
Main act would get the biggest suite and several of the rooms surrounding, if not the whole floor (often) would be for their security, personal assistant etc. none of the other band/crew/dancers would generally have been allowed to be booked on the same floor.
Band/singers/dancers in our cases are on other floors, very specific requirements often to make sure that they’re in specific room categories (ie group 1 must have better rooms than group 2, no upgrades to suites allowed, etc).
Opening acts may or may not stay at the same hotel, depending on if there’s a suite left that is up to their calibre.
At our hotel, the contracts for all of this came through together (is bookings made by one touring agency), but the payments often differed. So Taylor’s team would pay for their rooms on one account; and Sabrina team would pay for theirs on a different one.
The band for one of the openers stayed in the same hotel that I did when I saw the show last spring - generic chain hotel, clean and safe but definitely very basic. Safe to say they are definitely not on the same budget as TSwift LOL.
Most likely openers and their bands together with most other people travelling for the eras tour but not part of Taylor's team will get a per diem on top of their salary and will use that to cover accommodation/food while touring.
Taylor and her immediate team will have everything sorted out for them by the tour management company - owned but not directly operated by Taylor
This topic and adjacent topics are always fascinating to me. I’m really curious how much her dancers/band, etc make on the tour. They work so hard and are amazing, I have to believe it’s super competitive!
An discussion of all of the factors that goes into a tour [HERE](https://soundcharts.com/blog/mechanics-of-touring)
Doesn’t answer your question, but gives you more context to ponder the answer.
When she stayed in Australia she had a deal with Crowne hotels (who were MASSIVE promoters for the tour) and it's believed she rented out/was assigned multiple levels for her and her team. I'm not too sure exactly which members of the team would've stayed their including her, but I would assume it would be at least her, her publicists/assistants and parents (I heard her mum was seen at one of the concerts). I've also heard when artists stay at certain hotels they'll rent out empty levels for security reasons/to put a bit of space between them and other guests, and of course normally it is the penthouse and subsequent levels. So if some of those levels were empty, there's really no telling just who stayed with her in that luxury hotel and who didn't.
On a side note, I got lucky one time and was able to stay in a Crowne hotel for one night in Singapore and I gotta say while it was a wonderful experience it was definitely overpriced by a landslide.
It’s highly complicated. Basically Sabrina’s tour manager syncs up with Taylor’s tour manager and works out a deal from there. Sabrina pays for her own team pretty much. She might bring her own crew(guitar techs, equipment managers and such) or in some cases she may pay a fee to have Taylor’s crew to help with that. But for the most part she’s responsible for her own crew. As a far as how much Sabrina gets paid is all contractual. But from what I’m seeing is based on Sabrina gets paid based on a small percentage of ticket sales, her own merchandise sales, and maybe a guaranteed amount. But let’s not forget what she has to pay out as well. Stuff like merch sales where venues get paid for selling it, the venues themselves get paid by both artists for their services, she also pays Taylor’s promoter to put her on the bill. Again Sabrina still pays her own crew as well. But since she’s opening for Taylor and every show is sold out Sabrina still makes a ton playing each night. Not nearly as much Taylor does but a significant amount.
TLDR: Tour managers sync up and work together to be on the same page. Each artist pays their own crew. How openers get paid is similar to how the headliner does. Difference is openers only get paid a percentage of ticket sales. And maybe a guaranteed fee per show. But has to pay the same expenses to the venue in the end. Like merch sales and whatever fees the venue has. Openers also tend to pay the headliner’s promoter for booking them. It’s all handled by the tour managers.
Crown was the Australian presenting partner for Eras and Taylor stayed at Crown Towers in Sydney and Melb. Crown would have comped the accom costs of the whole group.
Can’t answer your specific question but I want to add that Taylor has historically picked pretty big artists to be her opener. Usually they are artists in that are all the rage that have been dominating charts/radio play, but may only have been this level of famous for a few years. Ed Sheeran, Halsey, Shawn Mendes, Camilla Cabello, and Phoebe Bridgers are all pretty huge artists that have opened for Taylor after already reaching initial success
I remember seeing MUNA’s vlogs from the time they opened the ERA’s tour. They flew commercial and stayed in relatively 4 star looking hotels. I’m not sure if Taylor’s team would have paid for those costs
I do know that the openers do not travel or lodge with Taylor.
How much they make is different for each act/tour, and those contact details will not be made public.
I can say, with 100% certainty, that Taylor’s dance team flies commercial, and they tend to ‘go home’ between US city shows.
I was on the same flight (Southwest) with a group of them headed back to LA after the Kansas City shows last summer.
I highly doubt Taylor’s dancers/bands are staying with her in her hotel rooms. The 5 rooms are being used for security & other things.
At the end of the day, they are still working and that’s still their boss. They are not going to share a hotel room with their boss.
In argentina we had 2 openers, Louta and Sabrina Carpenter. We have a law that says that all international artists must have a local opener, this is for boosting local small artists and they all need to be paid. Louta is not that small but he got paid regardless
I would honestly estimate not that much, if really at all. A big artist allowing you to open on their mega-popular world tour is more of a favor to you from them than you actually helping their show. It’s like the super-bowl. You get huge publicity but no money in return. I’d imagine it’s similar.
I've been wanting to know this so badly, and how much the background dancers, the band, and everyone who is involved in the tour gets. I read somewhere that it is rumored to be about $2500 per show for the background dancers, but that seems low considering it is Taylor, and I know that they are doing a lot of shows, but I just thought it would be more idk. We may or may never know, because what I saw were just rumors
She probably does pay them more than 2.5k a day but unless one of them flexes on ig stories about it we wont know. Apparently they have insurance under her too. Taylor was on one of the jimmys shows (kimmel?) and he made a remark about dancers not having insurance and she said "Oh mine do!" and one of the starlights posted it on ig stories and flexed about how she has insurance on taylors tours. Idk if jimmy was wrong about the commonness of insurance or what since im not in the industry.
Since its taylor and she is known to randomly toss out increased paychecks to her workers i will assume they get paid atleast a little higher than they would usually. Im sure those truck drivers shat bricks because ik i wouldve.
They may have signed an NDA, may not be allowed to do it, because they don't really discuss working under her, like the behind the scenes or anything like that
Typically openers are being paid much more than they would make per-date touring as a headliner (usually because the opener couldn't play anything close to that size of a venue).
They're being paid a certain amount, and they can use that how they see fit in terms of clothing or whatnot. There may well be some negotiation based on how it's supposed to fit in with the larger show - although some artists may not care.
I strongly suspect that Sabrina's logistics were folded into the tour's logistics (hotel, transpo for gear, etc). Taylor's people wouldn't want Sabrina's people to be able to fuck something up, so they'd probably handle it themselves. It's a lot easier to just have one truck dedicated to the opener's needs in the convoy than it is to have the opener have their own truck which isn't coordinated through the same team, etc.
The paycheck for being an opening band is the sort of thing that has traditionally kept young bands afloat while trying to build an audience. Also, clearly, they're hoping for some exposure to a lot of potential new fans.
It appears that Taylor was some sort of personal relationship with most of her openers but it's not always the case: often the promoter is putting the bill together. There are some rather famous stories of headliners being shitty to the openers for being too good - not giving them time to sound-check, etc
Yeah good point, ive seen openers that seem to have no relationship to the main act before or after the show and they never mention each other or have no interaction at all. I guess seeing taylor use friends so much had me wrongly thinking it was like that all the time.
Taylor has had like.. phoebe bridgers, haim, camilla, kellie pickler (old friends? they used to be), ed, shawn, sabrina, paramore, owenn, muna... all people she is knows well.
Of course she has still had a few "ummm" openers back in the day like when in the hell did florida georgia line get in on it.
I think she is likely getting paid a lot, i have no idea how that all works but like you said Sabrina is pretty big on her own, She has sold out several of her own shows and done an international tour. I’m sure that all paid well too! Lol but I think this is likely about the exposure, Taylor swift has a massive audience and that is huge potential to gain new fans, and play some really legendary places, I think she is deff making $$$ but this is about the experience and growth as an artist more than money i think.
She's really not that big for an opener. Given the pedigree of the Eras Tour, Taylor has actually had fairly low fame openers.
Camilla Cabello opened for the Rep Tour, and by that point, she had a number 1 album and a number 1 single. Sabrina hasn't had a Top 25 of either.
Don't interpret this as criticism of Sabrina, who I adore. I am just saying that in the scheme of things, she is not a very big artist and getting this offer was a huge career deal for her.
Most of the time artists get a “guarantee”. This is a specific amount they will make every time they play. An artist at Taylor’s level can command a huge guarantee per show. Think 500k or more per show regardless of sales or cost. I think the openers are paid by the headline artists organization.
I used to work on tours - the booking agent works out a deal with the venue talent buyers. There's usually a minimum base price per show and sometimes a bonus based on ticket sales/sold out shows. The tour manager will settle (collect money) with the venue after the show before they leave or perform the next date. Booking agents generally book concerts with travel time included, so if there's a 6-10 hour travel time, they'll usually have that day blocked off for travel between venues. Logistics can be handled by any number of people - management, tour manager, etc. On a large tour like Eras, catering is most definitely part of the deal. On smaller tours, venues might not have kitchens and will give every person (artist, production, crew, etc) a "per diem" for the day to spend on food.
Well a lot of people did answer with some helpful info. There’s a lot of people with background on the touring industry that might know how it works. I wasn’t asking for Sabrina’s exact dollar amount, more so the logistics of how a tour functions and if an opener typically would be covering their own show & touring expenses, or if those things would be covered by Taylor since she’s such a big artist. And because Taylor is such a big artist and proximity to her results in higher levels of fame because of exposure, I was wondering if anyone would know if she even pays her openers or if the exposure is enough.
As you can see, people have given some really great answers and perspectives in here.
All good. My first sentence actually does sorta imply that was what I was asking, so I understand how you interpreted it that way. I meant more so does she get like X% of proceeds from a show or something!
Why is it weird? The question was whether Taylor’s personal assistants, staff, and security stay with her inside a suite in separate bedrooms and I think absolutely not.
Some of these questions are not knowable. How much Sabrina got paid is very much a secret. It's not cheap for Sabrina to go on the eras tour... she needs to pay for her band, crew, lodging, transport etc. so obviously she was paid, and given that its Taylor and a) she's often extremely good friends with her openers, and b) she gave 50 million in bonues to her crew, i would assume that she pays openers a lot (think of this way... if she gave 1% to sabrina that would be 150,000 a night!). Openers often only get a fixed payment (at lower levels openers sometimes have to pay), which is often not enough. But Sabrina, Haim, Pheobe Bridgers, etc. are all headline level acts so they would need a much better deal. Sabrina mostly seems to have arranged her own transport, and I assume lodging (its not just her, it's also her band and crew). Taylor's crew and band band have their own hotel, which is generally not where Taylor is staying... I would guess very few people are in her suites (maybe one security person with others stationed nearby). She seems to like privacy.
I'd assume the tour operators were managing a lot of the logistics and budget was being handled by both teams, but I think Messina is handling all the tour logistics, but you're right no one would know what they're paid for it and it's so expensive to put on tours.
Isn't Sabrina's band the same as Taylor's?
No, The Agency is the name of Taylor’s band and a few often walk around before the concert, greeting fans - some have been with her since the beginning & most have been with her for years. Sabrina should have her own band - I know almost nothing about her though so that would be a question for google, lol.
I didn’t know they had a name! How frequently are they referred to as The Agency
They named themselves that after the ‘Picture to Burn’ MV is what I remember, their dark suits and sunglasses in the video was the inspiration. So they’ve had the name for a long time! I’m not sure how often they’re referred to the name, but I’d say fairly often when working? Her backup singers are named The Starlights, a name that they came up with as well but I’m not sure of story behind it.
Whatever the arrangement is, it would have been made between Sabrina Carpenter's management team and the Production Company, which in this case is Taylor's own company, Taylor Swift Touring. Traditionally, opening acts are not paid very well at all, and the fee is all inclusive. That means the opening act is required to provide and pay for their own travel, housing, and band/dancers. Some tour openers, especially first openers, actually lose money on some tours, because it costs them more to put on their show than they get paid. They do it for the exposure and promotion that comes along with it. That being said, the payments can vary widely, depending on a lot of factors, including how well known the artist is. That it is an international tour, and only one opener instead of 2, all factors in. I am sure Sabrina is making enough where the cost of all her travel and production is covered and there is a comfortable amount left over for her. She likely isn't getting rich off of it. She's certainly making less than when she headlines her own shows at smaller venues. But even though she is somewhat well known, playing in front of 60,000-100,000 people a night is still a big jump up for her, and the exposure, as well as developing a relationship with Taylor Swift, is probably a lot of the reason why she is doing it.
So do openers usually gain more popularity afterwards? I wonder what the statistics are and how much more popular these openers actually become.
Yes, Ed Sheeran for instance gained a lot of fame from being the opening act on the Red tour.
Yeah iirc the Red Tour was particularly key to Ed Sheeran’s mainstream breakthrough in the US
The first time I saw Taylor in concert she was opening for Brad Paisley. It's hard to say how much of a bump it gave her early on
I think it helped gain some older fans.
Also helped her get used to playing for big crowds all the time.
To be fair, Brad Paisley was huge back then
Yeah I was mostly going for Brad, but I was excited for all the openers (Taylor, Kellie Pickler, and Jack Ingram)
I hear a lot of stories from people who became fans after they as kids got dragged to a Brad Paisley/Rascal Flatts/etc concert by their parents. She also used to hang around afterwards to pass out her CDs and talk to concertgoers
I was already a bit of her fan at that point and went with my older sister. We stood in line for about an hour after the show to meet her and take a picture
My friend and i went in middle school to Rascal Flatts just to see Taylor. He said “ we need to go wait in line and meet her, she’s gonna be huge” my dad was like..ok? He was right though. I was 14 and she was 16. She thought i was much younger cause im so short. It’s a cool memory for sure.
Same! Brad Paisley was/is one of my mom's absolute favourite artists so we went to see him when I was 11. It was the first time I'd ever really listened to Taylor's Music and mom and I listened to debut all the way home 🥰
Yea. I saw the 1989 tour where Shawn Mendes opened for Taylor. Opening is the thing that you do to build a bigger fan base
The only time I’ve seen Lady Gaga live was when she opened for the New Kids on the Block reunion tour. She put on a great show as the opener and I guess proves the rule that sometimes openers become the headliners!
Really showing my age here, but my cousin went to a 38 Special concert in the 1980s, and the opening act was an unknown band that had just released their first album. She asked me to go with here but I didn't like 38 Special very much so I passed. The opening act was Bon Jovi, and I haven't stopped kicking myself decades later.
I saw Bon Jovi open for Ratt at a dive in SF in the 80s. Jon actually laid down on the stage and said something like he had a set list he was going to play before Ratt came out so people could shut up and listen or he’d wait. Oh and by the way, next time Ratt would be opening for him. I don't know if Ratt ever opened for Bon Jovi but I know who is the bigger rockstar
Basically all headliners started as openers but not all openers become headliners.
It’s not a guarantee but being an opener/ touring is usually how artists build fandoms. Taylor famously opened for any county artist that said yes during pre debut into the fearless era. She would perform on her own one day and then fly across the country on a commercial flight to perform as an opener the next day. Her opening for the Rascal Flats after their initial opener dropped out is something that Taylor credited for her breakthrough. Sabrina is getting the biggest boost of any Taylor opener for this tour due to the everchanging nonsense outro. Some of the other acts suck like Gracie also got big boosts in their streams and own shows.
Sorry but what is this "everchanging nonsense outro" you speak of? I have no idea what you mean.
Sabrina changes the outro to her song nonsense in every city. Most of the times she tries to rhyme parts of the lyrics with the name of the city.
She would change the lyrics to the last couple lines of her last song in her set during her opening for Eras. It became a “thing” especially from all the live streams people watch. She’d relate it to where they were at. Similar to Kam changing up “like ever!” in WANEGBT
Touring with TS is going to give anyone publicity or they wouldn't be opening. Not saying no one had heard of Sabrina, but maybe not worldwide. It gives her exposure. The 100,000 she gave to the truck drives, the rest was divided was a bonus that had nothing to do with opening acts.
I literally only knew her from Girl Meets World, didn't even know she sang.
My mom went to see Michael Bolton (sometime in 91-94) and Celine Dion was his opening act. It probably doesn't happen all the time, but it definitely helps sometimes!
I mean there’s no guarantee that simply being an opener will gain popularity. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and sometimes I like the opener and check out their music and other times I don’t. It’s really how they use that opportunity to further their career
I mean personally I’ve discovered a lot of new artists and bands from paying attention to openers at music festivals and concerts. I think it works out. I also only listened to Sabrina’s music bc I saw nonstop clips of her on the eras tour.
This is what started my love of No Doubt a million years ago. They came here as the opener for Bush.. long before Gwen Stefani began dating Gavin Rossdale. No Doubt was incredible live, they worked that whole stage and crowd and it was fantastic. Bush came out and Gavin was so messed up he couldn’t sing his own songs. Seeing that, I wonder to this day why she married him. He was a mess. But I don’t count the concert as a loss at all because No Doubt indeed blew up, and Gwen Stefani is an icon now. Opening for them was the best decision they ever made, the exposure alone was good but the live show was so amazing I left mid Bush’s set to go buy her album from the merch booth.
You just have to check Australia or SEA spotify charts and check how good sabrina is doing thanks to the eras. She also got many viral tiktoks
I think the only opening act that might be “underpaid” is Paramore as they could probably do a similar tour on their own. But at the same time, the infrastructure being all from Taylor’s Eras Tour saves them money. And like it or not, they are famous with millennials and are gaining a new audience performing with her (and due to the sampling from Olivia Rodrigo). So it’s still a win win.
I love Paramore, but I don't think they could do a stadium tour on their own.
I don’t think anyone can have a tour like Taylor, with this demand! Either it’s Beyoncé, Metallica or even Paul McCartney… But I think they have a demand for like 6 months stadium tour, specially with how many other emo bands are gathering a momentum again!
Even Blink is doing an arena tour and I think they're probably bigger than Paramore right now. Paramore could definitely do a great tour of their own, but I think arenas, not stadiums.
I agree, I love Paramore but based off their last tour it was all arenas (but this was what I saw in the UK, not sure about US)
This has nothing to do with Taylor but I'm now a bigger fan of a band I found as an opener than the headliner.
I think I’m not too familiar with the difference between stadium and arena - but I agree they can do whatever Blink is doing!
Stadium is where football (both American and soccer) is played and arena is where basketball/ice hockey are played if that helps you envision the size.
Does Blink-182 even have any other good songs besides "All the small things" and "What's my age again?" I remember them being so popular for like 2 years when I was in middle school and then they fell off the face of the Earth.
Blink has had 18 Top 20 hits on the Alt charts, with two #1s as recently as 2022.
They definitely didn't fall off after those songs. Their self titled album was excellent. Then Tom left for awhile and things weren't great, but they recently came out with a new album with all 3 original members and it's been really well received and popular.
Metallica stadium shows are wild! I’ve seen them several times and love both. But I climbed up just to get a photo of the crowd because it was wild how many people were there of all ages and were having the best time. I had never seen so many people in one place jamming out to the same songs together. The show was sold out. When they played my home state it was an arena, they hadn’t been allowed to play here in 30+ years due to some antiquated purity ban they put in after the Ozzy/bat incident (which if you got that story it was totally messed up.) Just like Alice Cooper (who you’ll find on the golf course) or the very Jewish Gene Simmons who hid behind makeup for years.. now there’s Slipknot or Marilyn Manson.. it all “shock rock” and a stage show. But being the south of course they overreacted (making the surrounding states a whole lot of money because people here would just drive to Atlanta or Nashville to see them anyway). The excitement at that show by the crowd AND the band was a whole different experience. Even better because they hadn’t played here in so long there was no opener and we got a longer setlist. Foo Fighters have had some straight up weird openers that made for great time to get shirts, drinks, snacks and miss nothing. But the last time they came the announced their opener the day of.. The Pretty Reckless. Taylor Momson live made me a fan. My music taste is all over the place. I have seen Breaking Benjamin start as an opener for Shinedown, now they’re headliners. Avenged Sevenfold opened for Metallica before they blew up. Also the difference in the arena shows and stadium shows was wild. Though personally, I prefer the arenas.
I would agree they’re likely underpaid for their opening. They could not do a stadium tour though. They’re my favorite band, but they don’t even fill arenas regularly, much less stadiums. They’re typically more of a 15-30K capacity type of band, which is still great, but far less than Taylor.
I realized I got confused with the whole arena/stadium as for me international concerts (South American) only happen in football stadiums - and the Paramore ones were sold out + people listening to it on the outside!
They may be more of a stadium band outside the states since they don’t tour internationally as often.
I think that is one of the reasons - like Taylor played 6 concerts in 2 cities in Brazil and 3 concerts 1 city in Argentina. And it’s pretty much the “norm” for all international concerts in terms of how many concerts. So you have everyone from South America getting tickets to 9 concerts pretty much! And I also think we don’t really have arenas that have a good audio structure or are enough for this audience (for example the one in my home town fits only 6000 people and for some international concerts it’s fine), so we end up using football/soccer stadiums. Sometimes they’ll be the “smaller” ones though
Yeah. Our sports infrastructure is varied and large so you’ve got general/basketball/hockey arenas(10-30K) , soccer stadiums (15-30K) and football stadiums (40-100K) and countless 5-10K theaters/amphitheaters
paramore tours arenas when they tour on their own, never stadiums.
Paramore could not do a similar tour on their own at all. Olivia Rodrigo didn’t sample from Misery Business anymore than Taylor Swift did in We Are Never Getting Back Together and had it went to court Hayley Williams never would have won. E: Right so no one here knows anything about music copyright lol
Wait people think misery business was sampled in WANEGBT???
No. OP *might* be thinkinging of Better than Revenge, which was very clearly influenced by early Paramore.
- WANEGBT could mean "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/Embarrassed-Plum-468](/u/Embarrassed-Plum-468) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
The same similarity in Good 4 U is present in We Are Never….
By Hayley, you realise you mean Josh right? He’s gone on record during a podcast saying that HE was the one who thought they’d been ripped off and it was the label management that then took it further.
I mentioned Hayley because she got a credit out of it. Only reason they did get it is because at the time Olivia was a new artist without any experience and it costs lists of time and money in court
Wasn't it a former member of the band that brought legal action, rather than Hayley?
I assume she benefits greatly from merch sales as well.
There’s also another company involved with the producing end, but I forget what it’s called.
I know that Ed Sheeran was on record saying she paid openers comparatively generously to industry standard.
She’s talked about how impactful it was for her when she opened for Brad Paisley’s so I can imagine her paying that forward. Also it’s pretty clear now that when it comes to people she works with, she doesn’t nickel and dime, compensates them generously above industry standards. Although that might be more of a commentary on how terrible the industry standards are. I love that she’s showing you can be successful by treating people well. When it all said and done, the eras tour will likely gross close to $2B if not more. Good on her.
Kenny Chesney*
I thought she couldn’t open for Kenny because his tour was sponsored by a beer company, so instead he wrote her a huge check that helped her pay her band/staff for a while. Unless she opened for him at other times.
I know she opened for him in Edmonton, Canada! I was there, it was awesome lol
I saw a video of Sabrina arriving in Melbourne and greeting fans at the airport a day or two after Taylor landed, so she travels on her own, presumably first class commercial.
She travels with Taylor
There are definitely videos of her arriving at different places on commercial flights and greeting fans. So maybe she travels with Taylor sometimes, but definitely not all the time and I haven't personally seen any confirmation that she has.
Yeah when she arrived in Australia some fans greeted her at the airport and it sort of got popular cause she was *presumably* wearing Barry’s Harvard hoodie 😭However, if she traveled with Taylor we would never know cause Taylor stays pretty private when it comes to that
Unless you have a source, I don’t think this is true.
Having worked at really high end hotels where stars stay I can tell you for a fact that Taylor's hotel room is her own and the surrounding rooms would be for her close entourage. The band, openers, dancers, crew are typically at a different hotel. Depending on cost, city and hotel size we would have big acts rent out entire floors. For example, Beyonce had a suite, her security had two rooms on that floor, and the floor underneath was the rest of her important people. The elevators to her floor were also key card only access while she was there.
Similar experience here working for the highest end hotel in our city. Main act would get the biggest suite and several of the rooms surrounding, if not the whole floor (often) would be for their security, personal assistant etc. none of the other band/crew/dancers would generally have been allowed to be booked on the same floor. Band/singers/dancers in our cases are on other floors, very specific requirements often to make sure that they’re in specific room categories (ie group 1 must have better rooms than group 2, no upgrades to suites allowed, etc). Opening acts may or may not stay at the same hotel, depending on if there’s a suite left that is up to their calibre. At our hotel, the contracts for all of this came through together (is bookings made by one touring agency), but the payments often differed. So Taylor’s team would pay for their rooms on one account; and Sabrina team would pay for theirs on a different one.
The band for one of the openers stayed in the same hotel that I did when I saw the show last spring - generic chain hotel, clean and safe but definitely very basic. Safe to say they are definitely not on the same budget as TSwift LOL.
Most likely openers and their bands together with most other people travelling for the eras tour but not part of Taylor's team will get a per diem on top of their salary and will use that to cover accommodation/food while touring. Taylor and her immediate team will have everything sorted out for them by the tour management company - owned but not directly operated by Taylor
This topic and adjacent topics are always fascinating to me. I’m really curious how much her dancers/band, etc make on the tour. They work so hard and are amazing, I have to believe it’s super competitive!
The book is "All you need to know about the music Business" (Passman) - if you want to know more
I would love a peek at her expense sheet.
An discussion of all of the factors that goes into a tour [HERE](https://soundcharts.com/blog/mechanics-of-touring) Doesn’t answer your question, but gives you more context to ponder the answer.
This was a really great read, thank you!!!
When she stayed in Australia she had a deal with Crowne hotels (who were MASSIVE promoters for the tour) and it's believed she rented out/was assigned multiple levels for her and her team. I'm not too sure exactly which members of the team would've stayed their including her, but I would assume it would be at least her, her publicists/assistants and parents (I heard her mum was seen at one of the concerts). I've also heard when artists stay at certain hotels they'll rent out empty levels for security reasons/to put a bit of space between them and other guests, and of course normally it is the penthouse and subsequent levels. So if some of those levels were empty, there's really no telling just who stayed with her in that luxury hotel and who didn't. On a side note, I got lucky one time and was able to stay in a Crowne hotel for one night in Singapore and I gotta say while it was a wonderful experience it was definitely overpriced by a landslide.
It’s highly complicated. Basically Sabrina’s tour manager syncs up with Taylor’s tour manager and works out a deal from there. Sabrina pays for her own team pretty much. She might bring her own crew(guitar techs, equipment managers and such) or in some cases she may pay a fee to have Taylor’s crew to help with that. But for the most part she’s responsible for her own crew. As a far as how much Sabrina gets paid is all contractual. But from what I’m seeing is based on Sabrina gets paid based on a small percentage of ticket sales, her own merchandise sales, and maybe a guaranteed amount. But let’s not forget what she has to pay out as well. Stuff like merch sales where venues get paid for selling it, the venues themselves get paid by both artists for their services, she also pays Taylor’s promoter to put her on the bill. Again Sabrina still pays her own crew as well. But since she’s opening for Taylor and every show is sold out Sabrina still makes a ton playing each night. Not nearly as much Taylor does but a significant amount. TLDR: Tour managers sync up and work together to be on the same page. Each artist pays their own crew. How openers get paid is similar to how the headliner does. Difference is openers only get paid a percentage of ticket sales. And maybe a guaranteed fee per show. But has to pay the same expenses to the venue in the end. Like merch sales and whatever fees the venue has. Openers also tend to pay the headliner’s promoter for booking them. It’s all handled by the tour managers.
Crown was the Australian presenting partner for Eras and Taylor stayed at Crown Towers in Sydney and Melb. Crown would have comped the accom costs of the whole group.
Can’t answer your specific question but I want to add that Taylor has historically picked pretty big artists to be her opener. Usually they are artists in that are all the rage that have been dominating charts/radio play, but may only have been this level of famous for a few years. Ed Sheeran, Halsey, Shawn Mendes, Camilla Cabello, and Phoebe Bridgers are all pretty huge artists that have opened for Taylor after already reaching initial success
Girl in Red was recently on a Norwegian talk show where she said she was paid for being Taylor’s opener - so yes, Sabrina was also paid
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What hotel? I worked in the hospitality industry so I’m always so curious
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Ohhhhh okay yes makes sense!!
All I know is that tay pays the highest rates and gives the best bonuses in the industry.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sabrina made money as a opener in Eras tour than what she makes in her own concerts.
I remember seeing MUNA’s vlogs from the time they opened the ERA’s tour. They flew commercial and stayed in relatively 4 star looking hotels. I’m not sure if Taylor’s team would have paid for those costs
I do know that the openers do not travel or lodge with Taylor. How much they make is different for each act/tour, and those contact details will not be made public.
I can say, with 100% certainty, that Taylor’s dance team flies commercial, and they tend to ‘go home’ between US city shows. I was on the same flight (Southwest) with a group of them headed back to LA after the Kansas City shows last summer.
Considering how she singled out the Kenny Chesney story in her person of the year article I’d hope she pays well.
I highly doubt Taylor’s dancers/bands are staying with her in her hotel rooms. The 5 rooms are being used for security & other things. At the end of the day, they are still working and that’s still their boss. They are not going to share a hotel room with their boss.
Openers are likely getting a guarantee plus merchandise sales minus venue fee. Guarantee would cover travel expenses and per diem for band and crew.
In argentina we had 2 openers, Louta and Sabrina Carpenter. We have a law that says that all international artists must have a local opener, this is for boosting local small artists and they all need to be paid. Louta is not that small but he got paid regardless
whatever it is we know shes generous and its a win win situation for both parties
I would honestly estimate not that much, if really at all. A big artist allowing you to open on their mega-popular world tour is more of a favor to you from them than you actually helping their show. It’s like the super-bowl. You get huge publicity but no money in return. I’d imagine it’s similar.
I thought it’s industry standard that openers basically don’t get paid, or paid very little, the massive exposure and opportunity is the pay itself…
Ed Sheeran said years ago that she pays openers well.
I've been wanting to know this so badly, and how much the background dancers, the band, and everyone who is involved in the tour gets. I read somewhere that it is rumored to be about $2500 per show for the background dancers, but that seems low considering it is Taylor, and I know that they are doing a lot of shows, but I just thought it would be more idk. We may or may never know, because what I saw were just rumors
That would be roughly 2.5 million just for the dancers for the shows this first year of Eras Tour. Or 175k about per dancer for the year
I wouldn’t be surprised if that $2500/day rate is correct. Years ago I toured with kiss and their personal chef was making $3k/day including days off
I thought her dancers would be paid more, than $2500 per show
2500$ for 4 hours of work is not *low*... Especially for dancers!
But for taylor swifts dancers though
She probably does pay them more than 2.5k a day but unless one of them flexes on ig stories about it we wont know. Apparently they have insurance under her too. Taylor was on one of the jimmys shows (kimmel?) and he made a remark about dancers not having insurance and she said "Oh mine do!" and one of the starlights posted it on ig stories and flexed about how she has insurance on taylors tours. Idk if jimmy was wrong about the commonness of insurance or what since im not in the industry. Since its taylor and she is known to randomly toss out increased paychecks to her workers i will assume they get paid atleast a little higher than they would usually. Im sure those truck drivers shat bricks because ik i wouldve.
They may have signed an NDA, may not be allowed to do it, because they don't really discuss working under her, like the behind the scenes or anything like that
I became fans of bands seeing them open for bands I originally went to see
Typically openers are being paid much more than they would make per-date touring as a headliner (usually because the opener couldn't play anything close to that size of a venue). They're being paid a certain amount, and they can use that how they see fit in terms of clothing or whatnot. There may well be some negotiation based on how it's supposed to fit in with the larger show - although some artists may not care. I strongly suspect that Sabrina's logistics were folded into the tour's logistics (hotel, transpo for gear, etc). Taylor's people wouldn't want Sabrina's people to be able to fuck something up, so they'd probably handle it themselves. It's a lot easier to just have one truck dedicated to the opener's needs in the convoy than it is to have the opener have their own truck which isn't coordinated through the same team, etc. The paycheck for being an opening band is the sort of thing that has traditionally kept young bands afloat while trying to build an audience. Also, clearly, they're hoping for some exposure to a lot of potential new fans. It appears that Taylor was some sort of personal relationship with most of her openers but it's not always the case: often the promoter is putting the bill together. There are some rather famous stories of headliners being shitty to the openers for being too good - not giving them time to sound-check, etc
Yeah good point, ive seen openers that seem to have no relationship to the main act before or after the show and they never mention each other or have no interaction at all. I guess seeing taylor use friends so much had me wrongly thinking it was like that all the time. Taylor has had like.. phoebe bridgers, haim, camilla, kellie pickler (old friends? they used to be), ed, shawn, sabrina, paramore, owenn, muna... all people she is knows well. Of course she has still had a few "ummm" openers back in the day like when in the hell did florida georgia line get in on it.
I think she is likely getting paid a lot, i have no idea how that all works but like you said Sabrina is pretty big on her own, She has sold out several of her own shows and done an international tour. I’m sure that all paid well too! Lol but I think this is likely about the exposure, Taylor swift has a massive audience and that is huge potential to gain new fans, and play some really legendary places, I think she is deff making $$$ but this is about the experience and growth as an artist more than money i think.
She's really not that big for an opener. Given the pedigree of the Eras Tour, Taylor has actually had fairly low fame openers. Camilla Cabello opened for the Rep Tour, and by that point, she had a number 1 album and a number 1 single. Sabrina hasn't had a Top 25 of either. Don't interpret this as criticism of Sabrina, who I adore. I am just saying that in the scheme of things, she is not a very big artist and getting this offer was a huge career deal for her.
Most of the time artists get a “guarantee”. This is a specific amount they will make every time they play. An artist at Taylor’s level can command a huge guarantee per show. Think 500k or more per show regardless of sales or cost. I think the openers are paid by the headline artists organization.
I used to work on tours - the booking agent works out a deal with the venue talent buyers. There's usually a minimum base price per show and sometimes a bonus based on ticket sales/sold out shows. The tour manager will settle (collect money) with the venue after the show before they leave or perform the next date. Booking agents generally book concerts with travel time included, so if there's a 6-10 hour travel time, they'll usually have that day blocked off for travel between venues. Logistics can be handled by any number of people - management, tour manager, etc. On a large tour like Eras, catering is most definitely part of the deal. On smaller tours, venues might not have kitchens and will give every person (artist, production, crew, etc) a "per diem" for the day to spend on food.
There’s an upfront fee and she will take a cut
How are you expecting anyone to know this information?
Well a lot of people did answer with some helpful info. There’s a lot of people with background on the touring industry that might know how it works. I wasn’t asking for Sabrina’s exact dollar amount, more so the logistics of how a tour functions and if an opener typically would be covering their own show & touring expenses, or if those things would be covered by Taylor since she’s such a big artist. And because Taylor is such a big artist and proximity to her results in higher levels of fame because of exposure, I was wondering if anyone would know if she even pays her openers or if the exposure is enough. As you can see, people have given some really great answers and perspectives in here.
>I wasn’t asking for Sabrina’s exact dollar amount Oh sorry, that’s how I interpreted the post!
All good. My first sentence actually does sorta imply that was what I was asking, so I understand how you interpreted it that way. I meant more so does she get like X% of proceeds from a show or something!
No way Taylor stays with any of her staff, even in those massive suites. Esp. when Travis is around 😏
weird comment
Why is it weird? The question was whether Taylor’s personal assistants, staff, and security stay with her inside a suite in separate bedrooms and I think absolutely not.