How Swifties fever helped make pop phenom Taylor a $1 billion woman?
Taylor Swift has amassed a net worth of more than $1 billion over her career. Check out the financial rewards the pop phenomenon has reaped.
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It is Taylor Swift’s billion era.
The 33-year-old pop phenomenon, filmmaker, performer and CEO of Taylor Swift Inc has amassed a net worth of $1.092 billion over her career, according to a recent report by Forbes.
Her earnings from music sales, concert box office, merchandise and property assets make her the second richest self-made woman in entertainment in the US, with Rihanna at No.1 courtesy of her Fenty beauty and fashion conglomerate.
As fans count down to her much-anticipated Eras Tour concert in Australia next year, here’s a look at the financial rewards Swift has reaped from her creative and business talents.
COMPANIES
Swift has a number of Limited Liability Companies (LLC) which administer her myriad business interests.
13 Management – her wholly owned Nashville-based management company was established at the beginning of her career, with her mother Andrea listed as one of its more than 40 employees.
Taylor Nation – The pop superstar’s official fan club whose operations are overseen by her PR and marketing team.
TAS Rights Management – Registers all her trademarks from album and song titles and the use of her music and image by brands, corporations or media. Among of the hundreds of trademark applications her company has made over her 17-year recording career are the name of her cats to Swiftmas and the phrase “This sick beat” from Shake It Off.
Taylor Swift Productions – her film company which owns the rights to her self-directed videos, including the All Too Well short film, and concert films. Swift is also on track to make her feature film directing debut after the Eras Tour wraps with a script the songwriter penned.
PROPERTY
The Wall Street Journal estimates she has a property portfolio worth more than $220 million.
Her first major purchase was a three-bedroom penthouse in the Adelicia building near Nashville’s legendary Music Row after the breakthrough of her 2009 album Fearless. She bought a one-bedroom unit on the floor below later that year via a trust, with the apartments estimated to now be worth between $5.9 million and $8.9 million.
Her other base in America’s country music capital is the Northumberland Estate, a Greek revival mansion in the exclusive enclave of Forest Hills, which she bought in 2011 currently valued at about $12 million.
One of her most famous homes is the Colonial-style mansion perched above the ocean at Watch Hill in Rhode Island, where she hosts her celebrity-filled Independence Day gatherings, attended by BFFs including Selena Gomez and the Haim sisters earlier this month. The seven-bedroom pile with sweeping ocean views is worth around $44 million.
Her next most lucrative property holdings are in the Tribeca neighbourhood in New York, where she seems to base herself in between stops on the Eras Tour.
Swift began building her extensive holdings in Manhattan in 2014 around the time she released Welcome to New York from her 1989 album, buying two penthouse units from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. She added a townhouse next to the Sugar Loaf building a couple of years later, with the value of her New York holdings estimated at more than $66 million.
But her most expensive property is the Beverly Hills estate built by legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn in the 1930s.
Swift has renovated the Georgian Revival home with pool house and tennis court to its former glory and applied for it to be recognised as a local landmark.
The lavish estate, where it is believed she recorded some of her Folklore album during the pandemic lockdowns in her Kitty Committee studio on the property, is believed to be valued at more than $103 million.
PLANES
Swift owned two private jets but reportedly downsized to her Dassault Falcon 900 a few years ago, which is worth almost $60 million.
Her jetset life copped a fair bit of flak last year when a sustainability marketing firm Yard examined celebrity use of private planes and found Swift’s airborne taxi had taken a whopping 170 flights between January and July last year.
Her representative said the jet was “loaned out regularly to other individuals” but there’s no doubt it will have got a workout this year as she travels back and forth from her homes to each city on her Eras Tour throughout North America.
TICKETS
Swift is on track to generate about $1.5 billion in gross box office earnings for the Eras Tour by the time it winds up in London in August 2024.
It would be the highest grossing tour in modern pop history, eclipsing Elton John’s epic Farewell Yellow Brick Road which just claimed the record with $1.373 billion from six million tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore.
Swift has thus far announced 106 shows around the world, with industry insiders estimating she would pocket from 40 to 60 per cent of the box office.
Industry insiders predict the All Too Well superstar could walk away with $5 million from each of her Australian shows after costs.
MUSIC
Forbes calculates Swift made about $136 million last year from physical record sales, streaming on platforms like Spotify, digital downloads, licensing and sync deals.
The release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the third in her campaign to re-record her first six albums after the masters were bought by music mogul Scooter Braun, will give her 2023 earnings a big bump as she would enjoy a higher royalty return from those sales than the original release.
Her albums and singles continue to breach one billion streams on Spotify even though she was off the platform for a few years mid-career in an artist rights protest, but Swifties are helping her make up for that lost time.
MERCHANDISE
If you thought the online ticket queues were a nightmare, wait until you see the long lines snaking around the merchandise stalls at her concerts next year. Insiders estimate sales of T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, water bottles, glowsticks and posters generate close to $3 million per show in the US. That all adds up to a potential gross of $300 million in merchandise sales during the Eras world tour to add to the box office earnings
Her Taylor Swift online store is an Aladdin’s cave of souvenirs for the fan who wants it all from myriad coloured vinyl editions of her releases ($80 in Australia) to $115 hoodies and $54 for a magnet set.
SPONSORSHIPS
Her official tour sponsors, including Crown for the Australian shows in Sydney and Melbourne, would help offset costs. It is unknown whether Swift or her local promoter gets a cut from the hotel packages on offer.
But she has also done some lucrative deals over her illustrious career in partnership with major brands, including Apple and Coca-Cola.
While she partnered with Stella McCartney for a one-off capsule collection for her Lover album, Swift is yet to really leverage fashion, beyond her own T-shirts, as a potential income stream in the same way Rihanna has with her Fenty brand and Beyonce with Ivy Park.
PHILANTHROPY
Swift repays the investment of her fans with myriad charitable endeavours. She has paid off college tuition debts, made sizeable donations to sexual assault charities in the US, and made generous contributions to Food Banks and other charities at cities she has performed in on the Eras Tour.
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Originally published as How Swifties fever helped make pop phenom Taylor a $1 billion woman?
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