“Taylor Swift is a large corporation,” one of her foes put it best. Scott Borchetta, Swift’s former label head at Big Machine, said it best, and he’s right.
Swift made an estimated $5 million in album and single sales, $2.4 million from streaming, and $2 million in publishing royalties in 2017, and was once predicted to earn a stunning $1 million every day (earning $170 million from June 2015 to June 2016 alone). And it was a slow year for the artist that year.
The Grammy winner’s enormous fortune stems from her abilities as a singer and songwriter, as well as her great business acumen, which she may have inherited from her parents: Scott Swift, her father, was a stockbroker and wealth management expert, while Andrea Swift, her mother, sold mutual funds.
Swift, on the other hand, possesses a level of savvy that is unlikely to be taught. Swift’s unique, intimate relationship with her fans earns her a significant level of loyalty, and she even founded her management firm, in which she functions as CEO, making her one of the first artists to embrace social media as a way to interact with her audience.
She previously stated that her brand is extremely important to her, as is maintaining touch with her fans personally, especially because she is a role model for them.
In 2011, she told 60 Minutes, “I absolutely think about a million people while I’m getting ready in the morning, and that’s just part of my life now.” I believe I must be aware of it and be aware of it. It would be so simple to announce, “I’m 21 now!” I’ll do whatever I want! You’re the one who raises your children!’
That, however, is not the case. The truth is that every performer with a hit on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words matter.”
Indeed making her words count has also made counting her money a lot more enjoyable. Taylor Swift’s net worth and the intricacies of her “Love Story” with American capitalism are being dissected.
Key Facts
- Over 200 million albums have been sold globally.
- In her years of traveling, she has amassed a fortune of $150 million.
- Owns real estate worth $90 million.
- On Spotify, she holds the record for the most one-day streams.
- Early Life
- Career
- Personal Life
- What is Taylor Swift’s net worth?
- 1. Taylor Swift sells a lot of albums
- 2. Taylor Swift called out streaming services, and then profited greatly from them
- 3. Taylor Swift earns big from her songwriting
- 4. Taylor Swift's tours make her a mint
- 5. Taylor Swift’s merchandise bundles make her bundles
- 6. Taylor Swift owns her master in her current record deal
- 7. Taylor Swift has dabbled in film and TV
- 8. Taylor Swift has some serious real estate
- 9. Taylor Swift gives back often and generously
Early Life
Taylor Alison Swift was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1989. James Taylor, a musician, inspired her name. Her early years were spent on a Christmas tree farm with her parents, Scott and Andrea, and her brother, Austin.
She went to a Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten before starting first grade at The Wyndcroft School. Taylor became interested in musical theatre when she was nine years old. In New York City, she also took singing and acting lessons.
Shania Twain inspired her to start listening to country music. As a preteen and adolescent, she performed at neighborhood gatherings and festivals.
She eventually convinced herself that she needed to visit Nashville, and she and her mother traveled to submit Taylor’s early demo of Dolly Parton and The Chick’s songs. Taylor left Nashville without a record deal because record labels didn’t think she was unique enough.
She learned to play the guitar at the age of 12 and wrote “Lucky You.” Swift’s family relocated to Nashville when she was 14 years old so she to have a better opportunity of breaking into the music industry.
In 2003, Swift began working with music manager Dan Dymtrow. He was key in landing Swift a modeling job for Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Rising Stars” campaign, as well as having one of her songs included on a Maybelline compilation CD. Swift was signed to an artist development deal by RCA Records after presenting her original songs at a showcase.
Career
Swift released her first song, “Tim McGraw,” a year after signing with Big Machine Records, and her first self-titled studio album followed it. Taylor Swift debuted at number five on the Billboard 200. However, she debuted at number one on the Billboard Country Music chart.
The singles “Our Song” and “Should’ve Said No” both reached number one on the album. Her debut album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) four times.
Fearless, Swift’s second album, debuted at number one on the Billboard, Billboard Country, New Zealand, and Canadian music charts in the United States.
It has received platinum certification in four countries, including six times in the United States, and features two number-one singles, “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me.” She has shared the stage alongside John Mayer, Justin Bieber, and Faith Hill, among others.
Swift has won 23 American Music Awards, 10 Grammy Awards, and 23 Billboard Music Awards, to name a few. She has sold more than 50 million albums and 150 million singles globally as of this writing. Taylor participated in five global tours between 2009 and 2018, grossing a total of $943 million.
Swift has appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and “Dateline NBC” as herself, as well as in fictionalized parts on shows and films such as “Valentine’s Day,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” Swift has also been featured in several. Now well-known publications, include Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and Rolling Stone.
Swift released her latest album, “Folklore,” in August 2020, and it debuted at the top of the charts.
Personal Life
Taylor Swift’s personal life has always piqued the interest of the media and her followers. She’s been dating actor Joe Alwyn since May 2017, but she’s dated a who’s who of prominent guys before that.
In 2015, Taylor dated Calvin Harris, a DJ. She dated actor Tom Hiddleston in the same year. She began dating Harry Styles in November 2012.
Taylor and Harry went to the British Virgin Islands together over the 2012-2013 winter holidays. They returned soon after, purportedly because they were both busy and never stayed in one area for long.
Swift began a three-month engagement with actor Jake Gyllenhaal in late 2010. She also had a brief relationship with John Mayer, long enough for her to pen the song “Dear John” about him.
Swift met Taylor Lautner while filming the movie Valentine’s Day, and the two quickly became inseparable. That relationship didn’t last long, but it did inspire a song called “Back to December.”
Swift dated Joe Jonas for three months in 2008. Swift was photographed hiking in Utah with her boyfriend Joe Alwyn in August 2020, just before her surprise album “Folklore” was released.
What is Taylor Swift’s net worth?
Swift’s net worth is estimated to be $400 million.
1. Taylor Swift sells a lot of albums
Swift’s involvement in the music industry since she was a youngster has paid off handsomely. While her actual record royalties aren’t made public, she sells enough of them to make a tidy profit:
- Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album has sold 5.75 million copies since its release in 2006.
- Fearless, her sophomore album, was released in 2008 and sold 12 million copies worldwide, making it her best-selling album to date.
- Since its release in 2010, Speak Now has sold 5 million copies worldwide. Red, a fan favorite from 2012, sold 8 million copies globally. 1989, her full-on pop transition album, has sold ten million copies worldwide since its release in 2014.
- Swift’s album Reputation, which was released in 2017 while she was on a self-imposed break, sold 4.5 million copies worldwide.
- Since its publication in 2019, Lover has sold 3.2 million copies worldwide, while Folklore, a surprise summer 2020 release, has sold just over 1 million copies.
Her sales will, of course, continue to rise with the release of a new album in 2020.
Albums
- Taylor Swift (2006)
- Fearless (2008)
- Speak Now (2010)
- Red (2012)
- 1989 (2014)
- Reputation (2017) Lover (2019)
2. Taylor Swift called out streaming services, and then profited greatly from them
Swift has already chastised Spotify and Apple Music for allegedly discriminating against musicians in their streaming regulations.
Swift penned an essay for The Wall Street Journal in 2014 about the future of music and then deleted her entire history from Spotify, calling streaming an “experiment.” She chastised Apple Music in 2015 for not paying musicians for streams during their trial periods, prompting them to change their minds.
In 2017, she finally made her archive available on all streaming sites, reportedly earning $400,000 in a single week from streams.
When it comes to YouTube views, Swift is a force to be reckoned with. Her proclivity for embedding Easter eggs into practically all of her visual output, which her adoring Swifties replay ad nauseam to catch, understand, and theorize, has honed that ability even more.
3. Taylor Swift earns big from her songwriting
Swift earns publishing royalties from the sales, streams, and plays of almost all of her songs because she wrote or co-wrote them.
The specifics of Swift’s publishing deals aren’t public, but according to Billboard, publishing royalties for Swift’s catalog in 2017 likely earned around $59,000 in a single week from streaming alone—so you can bet she’s made a lot of money from her ability to write.
4. Taylor Swift’s tours make her a mint
- Swift’s first-ever world tour, the Fearless World Tour, which ran from 2009 to 2010, grossed $75 million, and her earnings have continued to rise steadily since then.
- Her, Speak Now World Tour grossed $123.7 million, compared to $150.2 million for Red. In 2015, her 1989 world tour grossed a whopping $250 million, the most of any artist that year.
- Swift’s Reputation World Tour, which grossed $345 million in 2018, set a new record for the highest-grossing tour in US history.
5. Taylor Swift’s merchandise bundles make her bundles
Swift’s merchandise sales are phenomenal, and she incorporates her branding into her music, such as when she mentioned Stella McCartney in her 2019 song “London Boy” from Lover and then had McCartney design her merch for the album.
She sold cardigans to promote her first single, “Cardigan,” in a similar fashion to 2020 folklore. In a Capital One commercial, she promoted the cardigans (and the song “Cardigan”).
In a Capital One commercial, she promoted the cardigans (and the song “Cardigan”). T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, keychains, pop sockets, and mugs were among her other folkloric products, as were tangible copies of the album in the shape of vinyl, CD, and even cassette recordings.
Her folklore merch was also packaged with digital purchases of the record, according to Rolling Stone, boosting her album sales and charting. Swift sells $17 worth of stuff for every ticket sold to one of her gigs, according to Billboard.
6. Taylor Swift owns her master in her current record deal
Swift had a public (and still-going) feud with Scooter Braun over the masters of her first seven Big Machine Records albums. Braun’s masters were subsequently sold for $300 million.
She owns her master and is re-recording her entire former repertoire as part of her current arrangement with Republic Records. This indicates that if she licenses the music she owns, she will make a far larger profit than if she licenses the music she doesn’t own.
She has previously licensed a re-recording of her huge single “Love Story” for use in a commercial directed by her pal Ryan Reynolds.
7. Taylor Swift has dabbled in film and TV
Swift, in addition to her meteoric success in music, has acted in films such as Cats, The Giver, and Valentine’s Day, as well as voicing Audrey in The Lorax. In 2013, Swift had a noteworthy and self-referential cameo in New Girl as Elaine.
She’s also an accomplished director and co-director, having directed or co-directed numerous of her music videos, including “Christmas Tree Farm,” and “ME!” “You Need to Calm Down,” “Lover,” “The Man,” and “Cardigan.”
Swift also has specials such as Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Taylor Swift: the City of Lover Concert, Taylor Swift Lover’s Lounge Live, Amazon’s Prime Day Concert 2019, Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour, Taylor Swift: 1989 World Tour Live, and Taylor Swift Speak Now Tour Live, as well as the Netflix documentary Taylor Swift: Miss Americana.
8. Taylor Swift has some serious real estate
Swift owns real estate worth $81 million in the United States of America.
When she was 20 years old, she bought her first Nashville condo, estimated to be worth $3 million, and described the design as “whimsically girlie.” She paid $2.5 million for a property in the Music City suburbs in 2011, which is now valued at $3.8 million.
Swift acquired a Beverly Hills house for $3.55 million in the same year and sold it for $4 million in 2018. In 2018, she listed a Beverly Hills house for $2.95 million. She has one house in Los Angeles, which she bought in 2017 for $25 million, and is the former home of late Hollywood tycoon Samuel Goldwyn.
Swift bought her renowned Rhode Island property, dubbed “Holiday House,” for $17.75 million in cash in 2013. In the folklore song “The Last Great American Dynasty,” she sings about the home and its former owner, Rebekah Harkness.
Swift also owns three townhouses in the same building in New York City, which she restored to make one enormous residence. Swift paid $19.95 million for the first in 2015 and $12.5 million for the second in 2017. Her third property sold for $9.75 million in 2018.
9. Taylor Swift gives back often and generously
Swift isn’t simply wealthy; she’s also generous. Over the years, the singer of “All Too Well” has provided practically endless generous donations, both to causes and persons in need.
Swift has donated so much to GoFundMe that the platform altered its guidelines to accept donations of up to $50,000, noting that she had donated more than any other individual in the site’s history.
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