On March 13, 2024, Life & Style Magazine published an article claiming that Joe Alwyn, the former boyfriend of Taylor Swift earns “royalties” from the singer’s ongoing Eras Tour. The publication reported that a source close to the English actor exclusively told them that:
“Fair or not, it’s made him a very rich guy… Joe is making so much on royalties and returns from [Taylor’s] Eras Tour that he doesn’t ever need to worry about money again.”
However, as per community notes on X, under @BuzzingPop’s post, Life & Style Magazine’s claim is false and Joe Alwyn does not earn royalties from Swift’s Eras Tour, but rather from the “streams and sales” of the songs she co-wrote with her.
Notably, Joe Alwyn wrote six songs for Taylor Swift’s albums, when they were together from 2016 to 2023.
Joe Alwyn co-wrote two songs on Taylor Swift’s album ‘Folklore’
Joe Alwyn co-wrote multiple songs for Taylor Swift’s albums under the pseudonym William Bowery. In 2022, he penned Sweet Nothing for her Midnights album.
Before that, in 2020, he co-wrote three songs for the album Evermore including Champagne Problems, Coney Island (featuring The National), and the title track Evermore (featuring Bon Iver).
That same year, Alwyn also co-wrote two songs on Swift’s album Folklore namely Betty and Exile (featuring Justin Vernon).
Interestingly, the pseudonym William Bowery remained a mystery throughout 2020. Later, Swift's Disney Plus concert documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions confirmed the speculation that Bowery was her the-then boyfriend Alwyn and how it happened randomly while staying in quarantine together during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Joe told GQ Hype during an exclusive interview that co-writing songs with Taylor was an “accidental thing to happen in lockdown” and described the experience as “fun” and something to be “proud” of.
Around the same time, the 33-year-old British actor explained the pseudonym during an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He stated that William Alwyn was the name of his great-grandfather and music composer, while Bowery was the New York neighborhood where he first spent time after arriving in the USA.
Joe Alwyn does not earn royalties from the Eras Tour
According to the Sound Charts blog, during concerts and other live performances, people exclusively involved in it have shares in the profits. This includes the singer, their band, onstage and offstage crew, security, and other team members.
They also include promoters, tour managers, technicians, booking agents, organizers, and venue owners among others. However, it does not include the label producers or co-writers, as in the case of Joe Alwyn.
Hence, the claim that the Harriet star earns royalties from Swift’s Eras Tour is false. Instead, he makes money from the streams and sales of the albums and songs.
For instance, Swift was reported to have earned more than $100 million from Spotify streams in 2023, and part of the profits would go to Alwyn, for the six songs he co-wrote.
Life & Style predicted that the Boy Erased actor made $2.3 million off Swift’s Spotify streams last month. The number however remains unconfirmed. The publication’s claim that he also made money from the Eras Tour is fabricated.