Jacob Wolinsky
Taylor Swift’s net worth has only heightened in the last few years thanks to her billion-dollar The Eras Tour and re-recording her old music to regain ownership rights.
The singer-songwriter was recently able to buy back her entire music catalogue, which includes her first six albums.
So, what does this mean for Taylor Swift’s net worth? Does this latest deal put her within touching distance of the richest people in the world?
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Taylor Swift's net worth currently stands at $1.6 billion, according to Forbes. This doesn’t make her the richest woman in the world, but she is now the richest female musician. Previously, this title was held by Rihanna, whose net worth is $1.4 billion.
We delve into Swift's net worth, how she became successful, and her long-running battle over her music ownership.
How did Taylor Swift become famous?
Named after singer-songwriter James Taylor, Swift was born on 13 December 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania and showed an early interest in music. At age 12, she learned to play the guitar and began writing songs.
Swift's big break came in 2006 when, at just 17, she signed a record deal with Big Machine Records. Her debut album was a critical and commercial success, spawning several hit singles, including Our Song which became Taylor Swift's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Although her career began in country music, her music quickly gained mass appeal. Her second album, Fearless, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and later became the top-selling album of 2009.
Experimenting with different musical styles and establishing her versatility as a songwriter, her fourth album in 2012, Red, hit the jackpot, cementing her status as one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
Two years later, her fifth album, 1989, marked a departure from her country roots and embraced a full pop sound, becoming a commercial and critical success that won her several awards, including the Grammy for Album of the Year.
In 2019, she released Lover, her first album with Republic Records, which became one of the best-selling albums by a solo artist worldwide.
The pandemic didn’t stop the singer from releasing new music. During 2020, she released two sister albums — Folklore and Evermore, marking a shift towards indie folk music. The former made Swift the first woman to win a Grammy for Album of the Year three times.
Since then, she has gone on to release re-recordings of Fearless (Taylor's Version), Red (Taylor's Version), Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version).
She also released Midnights in 2022, and The Tortured Poets Department in 2024, her eleventh studio album and latest body of work.
Between March 2023 and December 2024, she was on her billion-dollar The Eras Tour, which covered all her studio albums to date.
Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour ended on 8 December after a staggering 152 shows worldwide
Taylor Swift's net worth explained
Taylor Swift is one of the very few artists who has reached billionaire status from music sales and performing alone, without the need for side hustles to boost her wealth. The Eras Tour and re-recording her first six albums to regain ownership rights were two key milestones in building her net worth.
Forbes estimates that of Swift’s massive wealth, an immense $600 million is from music royalties and touring. Most other artists like Ed Sheeran and Oasis amass their fortune as a combination of music and other investments — like the Shape of You singer’s minority stake in Premier League team Ipswich Town FC.
The New York Times revealed that The Eras Tour sold more than $2 billion in tickets, which is double the gross ticket sales of any concert in history. Her eight nights performing at Wembley Stadium drew well above 750,000 people — to put it in perspective, that’s how many people live in Seattle.
Box Office Mojo also reports that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film became the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history, earning more than $261 million globally. It sold about $93 million in tickets during its opening weekend.
According to Elle Decor, Swift’s property portfolio includes eight pads, ranging from a $150 million penthouse in Manhattan to a historic 12,000-square-foot beach house in Rhode Island. The former property once belonged to socialite Rebekah Harkness, who is the inspiration behind Swift’s song The Last Great American Dynasty.
Taylor Swift's cultural influence
From being a teen idol to now a pop icon, the American singer-songwriter’s influence is substantial.
In June 2015, Swift criticised Apple Music for not giving royalties to artists during its free three-month trial period, threatening to withdraw her catalogue from the platform. This prompted Apple Music to announce that it would start paying artists during the free trial.
When her juggernaut Eras Tour arrived on UK soil last summer, it boosted UK spending and prevented inflation from falling below 2%.
The pop star made headlines after endorsing Kamala Harris during the 2024 US election. According to the General Services Administration, which runs the vote.gov site, Swift’s Instagram endorsement drove more than 400,000 people to the website in less than 24 hours.
Why did Taylor Swift have to buy all of her music back?
Swift released some of her best-selling music under the Big Machine label. The contract with the record label lasted from 2005 to 2018, and when the deal was up, the artist switched to Universal’s Republic Records. However, Big Machine owned the original recordings of her first six albums.
Big Machine was acquired in 2019 by private-equity group Ithaca Holdings, owned by music manager Scooter Braun. Just 17 months later, Braun sold the rights to Swift’s master recordings to Shamrock Capital, a California-based private equity firm. Swift publicly criticised the deal: “This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent”.
In 2020, Swift announced she would re-record her first six albums in a bid to regain control of her music. She called her re-releases "Taylor's Version", gambling on her huge fan base to embrace the new recordings. Four of the re-recorded albums so far have topped the Billboard 200 charts.
On 30 May, 2025, Swift posted a photo holding vinyl copies of her first six albums with the caption “You Belong With Me”, indicating that she had finally bought them back from Shamrock Capital — nearly six years after her former record label, Big Machine Records, sold them to music executive Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
In a letter posted on her website, she wrote: “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.”
It is not yet known how much she paid for the records, but according to Billboard, Shamrock was initially sold the rights for around $360 million, and Swift paid close to the original amount.
It may result in a Cruel Summer for fans who were anticipating the re-recordings of her Reputation and Debut albums, but it’s extremely good news for the singer, who now owns all of her music — including music videos, concert films, album art, photography, and unreleased songs.
-
When is the Spending Review – and what could be announced?Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing some difficult choices in the upcoming Spending Review, which will be unveiled next week. We look at what could be announced
-
NFU Mutual and M&S among most trusted insurers as big brands beat smaller rivalsValue for money is a big concern for customers buying insurance, helping to send overall trust scores down to a four year low
