Taylor Swift hits billionaire status; drops new album
By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
It’s been a big week for Taylor Swift.
Not only has she been the center of attention for weeks at Kansas City Chiefs games because of her apparent romantic connection with Travis Kelce, she dropped a new album overnight Friday and made it on the billionaire’s list.
Bloomberg was the first to report that her name now ranks with powerhouses such as Elon Musk (No. 1 with $199B), Jeff Bezos (No. 3 with $143B) and Mark Zuckerberg (No. 10 with $105B) on the publication’s Billionaire Index.
She also joins entertainers such as Rihanna, who became a billionaire in 2021, as well as Jay Z and Beyoncé, who became billionaires in 2017, CNN reported.
So how did she break into the billionaire brotherhood? Bloomberg said it’s because of her Eras Tour, calling her “essentially a multinational conglomerate” and a “charismatic CEO” with “significant economic power.”
She performed 53 concerts in the U.S., which added $4.3 billion to the gross domestic product.
Bloomberg used assets and earnings that are confirmed or were part of publicly disclosed amounts that considered the value of her music catalog, five homes, streaming deals, music sales, concert tickets and, of course, merchandise. That number was adjusted to account for travel costs, tour production costs, commissions for managers and agents, and, unfortunately, taxes.
Swift’s catalog of music is worth $400 million, then the publication added $370 million from her concert tickets and merchandise sales, $120 million from Spotify and YouTube, $110 million for her homes and $80 million for her music sale royalties. All of that adds up to $1.08 billion.
Chris Leyden, SeatGeek’s director of growth and marketing, told CNN, “She’s not just a performer — she’s an economic phenomenon.”
She’s showing no signs of stopping.
She’s been taking the spotlight from the gridiron at every NFL game she’s attended over recent weeks, cheering on her apparent boyfriend Kelce, hanging out with her famous friends and even chatting up 87′s mom. Swift’s attendance at the games jacked up ticket prices more than 40%, CNN reported.
Swift is also getting ready to start the South American leg of her Eras Tour next month.
Friday brought the re-release of her hit album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” which, when first released, earned 10 Grammy nominations, CNN reported. It’s the latest of the of Taylor’s Version releases of her past albums, which she announced in 2019.
The album, which was released Friday exactly nine years after it originally came out, includes five unheard tracks from the vault, including one that apparently references her past relationship with Harry Styles, E! News reported.
In a note penned to fans and shared on social media, Swift wrote, “I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014 and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love.”