Taylor Swift Didn’t Need Lucrative Side Hustles To Become A Billionaire

Taylor Swift officially landed on Forbes’ billionaires list on Tuesday, April 2. But what distinguishes the 34-year-old singer-songwriter from other wealthy artists is how she accumulated her billion-dollar fortune.

The Miss Americana star ranked No. 2,545 on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List. According to Forbes, there are more billionaires than ever before (141 more than last year and 26 more than the 2021 record), with their collective worth reaching $14.2 trillion. Swift’s inclusion comes after Forbes declared the singer a billionaire in October 2023 and reported her net worth at $1.1 billion.

In a rare feat, Swift is the first musician to reach the milestone solely from songwriting and performing. Her fortune doesn’t largely derive from profitable side hustles (think: beauty brands, fashion lines, alcohol investments, etc.), which have been typical avenues for entertainers to become billionaires in recent years. This puts her in a unique category with artists like Bruce Springsteen, who earned $1 billion from on the road touring.

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More than $500 million of Swift’s fortune is from music royalties and touring. She made an estimated $190 million after taxes from the first leg of the Eras tour and another $35 million from the first two weeks of screenings of the corresponding concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which became the highest-grossing concert movie in history.

Meanwhile, another $500 million of her earnings came from the increasing value of her music catalog. Her masters (Swift’s first six albums) were infamously purchased in 2019 by Scooter Braun and eventually sold to Shamrock Capital for $300 million in 2020.

“This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” Swift penned on Tumblr in 2019 when she learned that Braun had bought her masters. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

At the time, Swift also parted ways with her long-time home, Big Machine Label Group, to join Universal Music Group’s Republic Records, a deal that would give the superstar complete ownership over songwriting and the recordings, ultimately boosting her earnings in the long run.

“I’m ecstatic to announce that my musical home will be Republic Records and Universal Music Group,” Swift wrote on Instagram about the news. “Over the years, [UMG chief] Sir Lucian Grainge and [Republic chief] Monte Lipman have been such incredible partners. It’s so thrilling to me that they, and the UMG team, will be my label family moving forward. It’s also incredibly exciting to know that I’ll own all of my master recordings that I make from now on.”

Since switching labels, Swift has released four new albums, Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights, and re-recorded Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Swift’s the sole writer on over one-fourth of her top 50 Billboard chart hits, although she frequently shares writing credits with collaborators like Jack Antonoff and Max Martin, who also get a portion of a record sale.

On April 19, the pop star will release her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which will also add to her massive earnings. Swift announced the new record during her Album of the Year win acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February.

While becoming a billionaire, the singer made a huge monetary impact on the NFL. Swift created a brand value equivalent of $331.5 million for the Chiefs and the league, according to data from Apex Marketing Group. That number comes from print, digital, radio, TV, highlights, and social media mentioning Swift from her first game on Sept. 24 to Jan. 22.

One of Swift’s many accomplishments from last year also includes being named Time Magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year. In her interview with journalist Sam Lansky, Swift told the magazine that “this is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been.”