Airing Eras Live Streams: A review of the TikTok live streams of the Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, every Friday, Saturday and occasional Sunday at 9:25 p.m., I make sure I’m somewhere where I can tune in for my weekly viewing of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour surprise song. Since I can’t fly out to every Taylor concert in different cities each weekend, I’ve discovered the next best option — livestreams.

Who wants to play “Where’s Taylor?” in a stadium of 70 thousand people from a pixelated and slow video? I know I don’t. So I try my best to find the best after scrolling through a few TikTok live streams to find the least shakey stream with the clearest audio. 

Some people may disagree with the idea of livestreaming the show because it seems wrong to watch without paying for it, but I doubt Taylor would have a problem. Tickets were upwards of 300 dollars and far out of most high schoolers’ budgets. 

These livestreams are a way for people to view the show regardless of whether they were able to get tickets. Plus, the shows are sold out anyways, so Taylor isn’t losing any money from these livestreams.

Maybe Taylor is often pixelated and, sure, the audio isn’t perfectly in sync with the video, but I always take full enjoyment from watching.

I feel my fan-girl jitters build up in my body while Taylor gives her nightly speech hinting at the surprise song. Then once she finally says the key word exposing the surprise, whether it’s “3 a.m.” for “I Bet You Think About Me” or saying, “it’s the namesake of an album,” for “Speak Now,” I feel my stomach drop in excitement and find myself squealing along like I’m really in the crowd.

I look forward to these videos all week and though the quality of my viewing might not seem enviable, I can’t recommend it enough. I enjoy every single moment of it and have practically memorized the setlist. I’ve seen every song transition or note change.