Taylor Swift has officially joined the billionaires' bandwagon by ranking as one of the world's wealthiest people according to Forbes.
While the American singer-songwriter may not be the richest woman in the world, she joins the likes of Steve Ballmer and Bernard Arnault on the Forbes World's Billionaires List for the first time.
Taylor Swift's net worth currently stands at $1.1billion (£877million), and like Rihanna and Ed Sheeran, she is undoubtedly one of the most successful musicians of our time. But where does most of her wealth come from?
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In this article, we will delve into Taylor Swift's net worth and explore how her success as an artist has helped her build the fortune she has today.
How did Taylor Swift become a billionaire?
Swift is one of the very few artists who has reached billionaire status from her music and performing alone, without the need for side hustles to boost her wealth significantly.
The major reason for her entering the rich list is the Eras Tour and her Grammy Awards wins - 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 - through 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 just from music royalties and touring (giving her most recent Eras tour a lot of the credit).
She has only completed the Eras tour in the U.S. and has already made an estimated $190 million after taxes. The second leg of the tour will see Swift go international, including bringing her tour to the UK in the summer of 2024.
And let’s not forget the after-effect her tour has already had on the world- boosting local economies- or as we call it, the ‘T-Swift lift’, and causing Taylor Swift ‘quakes’ when her fans generated seismic activity during a show in Seattle, U.S some outlets report.
Swift also made around 35 million dollars 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
Most successful singer-songwriters began with the hard work of playing for free, and Taylor Swift is no different. Born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, she showed an early interest in music and singing, starting out at age 10, she learned to play the guitar and began writing her own songs.
Swift's big break came in 2006, when, at the age of just 17, she signed a record deal with Big Machine Records, a label Swift later regretted signing on with (more on that later).
Released later that year, her debut album 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.
Taylor Swift's career began in the country music market, although 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 become the top-selling album of 2009.
After her early career success, Taylor Swift continued to dominate the music industry in the 2010s. 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.
Swift's success continued with the release of her fourth album, Red, in 2012. The album featured a more pop-oriented sound and included hit singles such as We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble and 22. The album 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 included hit singles such as Shake It Off, Blank Space and Bad Blood and won several awards, including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It was a commercial and critical success and cemented Swift's status as one of the most successful musicians of her generation.
Taylor Swift re-released her old music
With Big Machine Records, Taylor 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 Universals' Republic Records. However, Big Machine continues to own the original recordings of her first six albums.
Big Machine sold itself to private-equity group Ithaca Holdings, owned by music manager Scooter Braun, who Swift claims has bullied her. Although Ithaca sold the rights to her music to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300m in 2019, Swift decided it was time to re-record her first six albums and keep the master recordings under her control - calling her re-releases Taylor's Version.
While motivated by personal reasons, this was also a savvy business decision. By keeping the rights to her music, Swift can keep all the royalties without having to split the takings with other investors.
All four re-recorded albums - Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989 - (Taylor's Version) topped the Billboard 200 charts.
But there's a lot more to come, with not just re-releases but new albums on the way too. While accepting her 13th Grammy Award for Midnights in the best pop vocal album category, Taylor announced that her 11th studio album - The Tortured Poets Department, will be released on 19 April 2024.
How Taylor Swift's net worth has rocketed
Most of the singer-songwriter's wealth comes from her music sales and very lucrative tours.
Her Reputation stadium tour grossed over $345m in 2018, while her latest Eras stadium tour has generated a staggering $1.04bn in ticket sales.
And more recently, Swift surprised fans with the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department which consists of 31 songs. A day in, the singer broke the record for Spotify's most streamed in a single day.
Not all of this revenue goes to the artist, but Taylor Swift has plenty of other 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 an interest in streaming service Tidal.
And like all celebrities, Taylor Swift has signed numerous sponsorship deals, partnering 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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