Taylor Swift has officially reached billionaire status thanks to her wildly successful Eras Tour concerts and film, the value of her new music and the rerelease of her earlier studio albums.
On Thursday, Bloomberg — a financial news organization — shared an article declaring that the Shake It Off singer, 33, had joined the likes of fellow billionaire artists such as Rihanna and Jay-Z.
The outlet gave an in-depth look at Swift’s finances and her pathway to billionaire status, even crediting her as “one of the few recording artists to build a 10-figure fortune almost entirely from her music.” Rihanna’s riches came in large part through her Fenty Beauty and clothing lines while Jay-Z made it big through a series of investments, businesses and endeavors not all connected to his music.
According to Bloomberg, Swift’s exact net worth is $1.1 billion. This number came from an analysis of her music catalog, merch sales, tour revenue and more.
It’s not hard to see just how much of an economic footprint the singer and her fans have. It has been reported that North American ticket sales alone for the Eras Tour broke $2.2 billion.
Bloomberg Economics estimates that in total, the 53 U.S. concerts from the tour have added $4.3 billion to the country’s gross domestic product.
As for a breakdown of where Swift’s dollars come from, the financial outlet found that more than three-quarters of her net worth is based in the value of the music she has released since 2019 ($400 million) and ticket sales and merchandise ($370 million).
The remaining $330 million stems from her YouTube and Spotify earnings ($120 million), value of her five personal properties ($110 million) and her music royalties ($80 million).
“In addition to being a generational talent, Taylor Swift is a great economist,” Carolyn Sloane, a labor economist at the University of Chicago, told Bloomberg. “Taylor has great ideas, is able to scale her ideas and seems to be pretty risk-seeking.”
One recent ingenious economic decision the singer is not soon expected to regret: releasing a pro-shot of the Eras Tour concert. In its opening weekend, the film made $92.8 million and was the top earner at the box office for two weeks straight. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — a nearly three-hour theater-going experience — has also broken a slew of other records including the first-ever concert film to pass $100 million at the box office.
In June, just three months after the Eras Tour began, Forbes unveiled a list of the richest self-made women in America, placing the Karma singer 34th on the list and estimating her net worth at $740 million.
She was preceded by only one other musician, Rihanna, on the list. The Rude Boy singer was ranked 20th and valued at $1.4 billion for her music and businesses. It’s unclear how that number will change as the singer is expected to hit the road for a tour and release new music in 2024.
As for Swift, her fame — and wealth — is only expected to grow as she gets ready to set out on tour dates in South America later in the fall before heading to Asia, Australia and Europe in 2024.
Additionally, it’s full steam ahead in the world of music as Swift is preparing to release 1989 (Taylor’s Version) which is expected to be one of the biggest albums of the year. The album, named after the year the Bad Blood singer was born, is part of her plan to rerelease her albums so that she can own the masters to her work.
The singer first made plans to re-record her music in 2019 after music executive Scooter Braun purchased her former label, Big Machine, for a reported $300 million. Via the purchase, Braun received majority ownership of her master recordings. Taylor was outspoken in her unhappiness with this deal and repeatedly said she asked for a chance to own her own work but was denied.
Since announcing that she would rerecord each of her first six albums, the singer has released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) releasing on October 27. Release dates for “Taylor’s Version” of the two remaining albums, Reputation and Taylor Swift, have yet to be announced.
Experts say it is through her careful and crafted moves with her catalog and her music ventures that she has been able to reach the billionaire milestone so early in her career.
“Every endorsement, partnership and business move she makes is part of a broader, meticulously constructed plan,” Stacy Jones, founder of marketing agency Hollywood Branded, told Bloomberg. “It’s not just impressive, it’s masterful.”
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