Taylor Swift has kicked off the UK stretch of her Eras Tour, and it’s set to boost UK spending by nearly £1 billion, a report by Barclays shows.
Although the American singer-songwriter does not feature on our richest people in the world list, her economic influence is significant. Fans are paying an average of £206 on tickets for the Eras Tour, and those with VIP packages are spending in the region of £400 – and that’s just on tickets, says Barclays.
Around 1.2 million British fans are due to spend around £848 each, when travel costs, accommodation, tickets, outfits and other expenses are taken into account – providing an injection of almost £1 billion into the UK economy. There’s a reason the singer’s impact has been dubbed ‘Swiftonomics’.
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As a result of her juggernaut Eras Tour, Swift's net worth currently stands at £785.51 million, the BBC reports – from that, an immense £471 million is just from her music and tours. Most other artists see this kind of wealth come from a combination of music and other investments, such as Rihanna and Ed Sheeran.
The global star is set to take stages in Cardiff and London this week, with her last performance in the UK on 23 June. Swift will return to the UK in August for the second UK leg of her Eras Tour.
Here, we delve into Swift's net worth and explore how her success as an artist and a shrewd businesswoman has helped build her fortune.
Taylor Swift's net worth and Eras Tour
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 major reason for her entering the rich list is the Eras Tour and her Grammy awards win – she is the first artist to win Album of the Year four times. To add to that, she was Spotify's most streamed artist in 2023 with over 26.1 billion global streams – from which she earned a staggering £72million. She currently has more than 102 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
According to Forbes, over $500 million of Swift's fortune comes solely from music royalties and touring. Swift’s current Eras tour has already made the singer an estimated $190 million after taxes, and the tour doesn’t finish until December 2024.
And let’s not forget the effect her tour has already had – from boosting local economies – or as we call it, the ‘T-Swift lift’ – to causing Swift ‘quakes’ (when her fans generated seismic activity during a show in Seattle).
Swift also made around $35 million from the first two weeks of screening her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Forbes reports.
But let’s go back – where did Taylor Swift come from and how did her journey begin into fame?
The root of Taylor Swift's net worth
Born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, Taylor Swift showed an early interest in music and singing. At age 10, she learned to play the guitar and began writing her own songs. Swift's big break came in 2006 when, at just 17, she signed a record deal with Big Machine Records, a deal that Swift later regretted signing (more on that later). Her debut album, released later that year, was a critical and commercial success, spawning several hit singles, including Tim McGraw, Teardrops On My Guitar and Our Song. The latter became Taylor Swift's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Although Taylor Swift's career began in the country music market, her music quickly gained mass appeal. She went on to release her second album Fearless in 2008, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and later became the top-selling album of 2009.
In 2010, she released her third album, Speak Now, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and featured hit singles such as Mine, Back to December and Mean. The album showcased Swift's growth as a songwriter and her willingness to experiment with different musical styles.
In 2012, Swift’s fourth album, Red, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and cemented Swift's status as one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
In 2014, Swift released her fifth album, 1989, which marked a departure from her country roots and embraced a full pop sound. The album was a commercial and critical success, winning several awards, including the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Taylor Swift re-released her old music
Under the Big Machine label, Swift released some of her best-selling music. 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 by private-equity group Ithaca Holdings, owned by music manager Scooter Braun (now part of the Korean entertainment group, HYBE) and just 17 months later, Braun sold the rights to Swift’s master recordings to a private equity fund. Swift publicly criticised the deal, claiming she was not given the opportunity to buy back her recordings. “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 – calling her re-releases Taylor's Version, gambling on her huge fan base to embrace the new recordings. While motivated by personal reasons, this was also a savvy business decision. By holding the rights to her music, Swift keeps 100% of the royalties and the new releases reduce the marketability of the original masters. All four re-recorded albums, to date – Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989 – (Taylor's Version) topped the Billboard 200 charts.
More recently, Swift surprised fans with the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which consists of 31 songs. Just one day later, the singer broke the record for Spotify's most streamed in a single day.
How Taylor Swift's net worth has rocketed
Most of the singer-songwriter's wealth comes from her music sales and lucrative tours. Her Reputation stadium tour grossed over $345 million in 2018, while her latest Eras stadium tour has generated a staggering $1.04 billion in ticket sales. Not all of this revenue goes to the artist, but Swift has many income streams. She owns several properties, including a $50 million apartment in New York City and a $17 million beachfront mansion in Rhode Island, and has an interest in the music streaming service Tidal.
And, like many celebrities, Swift has numerous sponsorship deals with major brands, including Coca-Cola, Keds and Apple. Swift is known for being very selective about the brands she works with – she only partners with those that align with her values and image. She also has a range of merchandise highly sought after by her fans.
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