ABBA will gross tens of millions without having to so much as pull on a platform shoe
I thought about this brief encounter with Ulvaeus a few weeks ago while watching the live online broadcast triumphantly announcing ABBA’s reunion for a new album and new live experience, both titled Voyage.
Specifically, the bit when his bandmate and songwriting partner Benny Andersson, sat next to him during an interview with Zoe Ball, candidly revealed his favourite thing about being in ABBA: “Not having to worry about the money.”
The odd tax wrangle aside, it’s true that ABBA haven’t had to worry about the money over the years – and not only because ABBA Gold continues to sell like it contains the elixir of life.
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Beyond massively monetising ABBA’s brand through musicals, movies, museums and more, they’ve been savvy investors of their riches, in all from a Swedish bicycle factory to Soviet crude oil and British tech start-ups (Ulvaeus recently backed Audoo, a company promising to revolutionise the way public performance royalties are tracked).
For all that Björn and Benny will be remembered as some of the greatest ever songwriters, they should perhaps be remembered as even better businesspeople. With ABBA Voyage, they may have pulled off their greatest masterstroke yet.
In London’s freshly constructed ABBA Arena – where Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s de-aged VR avatars (‘ABBAtars’) will strut their stuff nightly with a live band – ABBA have created a giant money-printing machine.
There are seven ABBA Voyage shows a week currently scheduled at the 3,000-capacity arena from next spring through to autumn, many of them already sold out or well on the way.
Tickets range in price from £21 for the cheapest seats to around £200 for a spot in one of the deluxe “dance booths” (re-sale tickets for the premiere are said to be trading for up to £1,000).
The highest-grossing concert tour of all time by Ed Sheeran made around £570m, but it took two years and more than 260 dates globally to do it. ABBA Voyage will gross tens of millions in a few months, all in one place, …….
Source: https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/abbas-comeback-is-set-to-make-money-money-money/