TOPLINE
O
n Aug. 2,
Ed Sheeran’s
÷ (Divide) tour
became the
top-grossing trek of all
time, according to Billboard
Boxscore. After over two years
and 246 performances — with
nine left to go — Sheeran
has taken in $737.9 million,
surpassing U 2 ’s 2011 record
of $736.4 million.
At the time, U2 was a
touring juggernaut that had
released 12 albums over
three decades — and it took
the record from The Rolling
Stones. How did Sheeran — a
28-year-old solo artist with
three albums and just one
previous arena tour — do it?
“A combination of math
and marketing strategies,”
according to Patrick Ryan, co-
founder of leading ticketing
company Eventellect. “No
BY ERIC FRANKENBERG
How The Divide
Tour Conquered
Ed Sheeran broke U2’s 8-year-old
Billboard Boxscore record for total gross with
“a combination of math and marketing”
helps set up publishing ventures for
songwriters. It could also change
the atmosphere in writing sessions.
“Now my writers can’t go into a room
and go, ‘OK, let’s give that a Marvin
Gaye vibe,’ ” says Keller. “That all can
come out in discovery.”
Richard Busch, the attorney
who represented Gaye’s family
in the “Blurred Lines” case, says
that songwriters should have been
taking care not to infringe previous
compositions all along. “The law
has not changed,” he says. “Music
publishers and songwriters should
be on notice that they cannot copy
the work of other parties.” Some
songwriters arrange settlements to
share credit rather than go to court:
Prior to the “Blurred Lines” case,
Sam Smith gave Tom Petty
a reported 12.5% writing credit on
his hit “Stay With Me” because
of similarities to 1989’s “I Won’t
Back Down.”
Randall Wixen, founder of
Wixen Music Publishing, which
administers publishing rights for
songs by The Doors, Neil Young
and Petty, among others — says
that the jury in the “Dark Horse”
case reached the wrong verdict. At
the same time, he doesn’t believe
the decision will lead to a “chilling
effect” because “it’s extraordinarily
expensive to bring a suit ...
You’ve got to be willing to make a
minimum $200,000 bet that your
convictions that you were ripped off
are correct. Hiring an expert who’ll
testify in your case can be $10,000
a day, easy.”
One of the main issues in these
cases is what evidence juries should
consider — the recording of a song,
or just the written composition
— and whether a noninfringing
similarity in recording style will
affect the final verdict.
Another issue is that, in
the digital age, it’s harder for
songwriters to argue that they
didn’t have the access to a previous
composition, which is required for a
finding of infringement, according
to Eve Wagner, an attorney who
represented Michael Jackson
in a copyright case in the 1990s.
Although Williams said in court
that he was trying to “feel that
feeling” of Gaye’s music, the “Dark
Horse” songwriters said they had
never heard “Joyful Noise.”
“In that sense, [the “Dark Horse”
verdict] is more troubling,” says
attorney Howard King, who
represented Williams and Thicke
in the “Blurred Lines” case.
If songwriters will now have a
hard time arguing that they couldn’t
have heard an earlier song and
infringement can be based on a
sequence of six notes, how can
they protect themselves against
potential lawsuits?
Easy, says King sarcastically:
“Write a stiff.”
Additional reporting by
Chris Eggertsen.
Sheeran onstage in
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K18 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 10 , 2 019
ARTIST
Tour
YEARS TOTAL
GROSS
1 ED SHEERAN
The ÷ (Divide) Tour
2017-19 (ongoing
through Aug. 26)
$738M
2 U2
The 360° Tour
2009-11 $736M
3 THE ROLLING STONES
A Bigger Bang Tour
2005-07 $558M
4 GUNS N’ ROSES
N o t in T his L i fe t im e To ur
2016-19 (ongoing
through Nov. 2)
$530M
5 COLDPLAY
A H e a d Full o f D r e a m s To ur
2016-17 $523M
The Highest-Grossing Tours Of All Time
artist has ever played in front
of that many seats during one
consecutive tour. So it was a
matter of filling them.” U2 sold
a reported 7,272,046 tickets
for 110 shows, while Sheeran
sold 8,503,496 for more than
twice as many concerts.
Sheeran did that partly by
keeping new music coming
after releasing the hit album
÷ (Divide), which has earned
4.7 million equivalent album
units, according to Nielsen
Music. “To fill stadiums like
that, you need to capture the
dollars of the casual fan,”
says Ryan.
Sometimes, that involved
fewer dollars. Sheeran’s
ticket prices for arena shows
averaged $83.50 in 2017.
When he graduated from
arenas to stadiums later in
the tour, he barely raised
prices: His international
booking agent, Jon Ollier of
Creative Artists Agency, says
Sheeran kept tickets below
$100, even in stadiums. “He’s
very democratic about the
whole process,” says North
American agent Marty
Diamond of Paradigm Talent
Agency. (With his manager
Stuart Camp and agents,
Sheeran also fought scalpers,
in some cases canceling bot-
purchased tickets en masse.)
By comparison, stadium
concert tickets averaged
$116 per ticket (Beyoncé
and Jay-Z) to $156 per ticket
(the Stones).
But stadium shows often
involve between three and
five times as many concert-
goers as an arena can hold.
And while only a few artists
have enough draw to fill those
venues, the economics are
enviable, since in many cases
they eliminate the need to play
secondary markets or multiple
nights in the same city.
Sheeran wasn’t so interested
in efficiency: He played 93
stadium shows in 2018,
nearly double the number of
dates played by Taylor Swift
(53) and Beyoncé and Jay-Z
(48). That schedule made
a difference in the final
gross. He also played in new
markets, including two cities
in South Africa and more in
Asia and South America.
At least one person may
not be surprised by Sheeran’s
success. Diamond recalls
sitting with him in April
2012 on the steps of the
1,200-capacity 9:30 Club in
Washington, D.C., after he
had opened for Snow Patrol
and hearing him ask, “When
do you think we’re going
to play Madison Square
Garden?” Before the end
of the year, Sheeran had
sold out Terminal 5 in New
York — then, in 2013, Radio
City Music Hall. Last year,
he sold out two shows at the
50,000-capacity MetLife
Stadium in East Rutherford,
N.J. It’s hard to envision what
could come next. But as
Diamond says, “Ed always
has his eye on the prize.”