Taylor Swift Is Already A Billionaire—Here's How 'The Life Of A Show Girl' Will Increase Her Fortune

Forbes

On "Forbes Talks," Forbes Deputy Director of Editorial Operations Justin Conklin discussed Taylor Swift's cultural power and net worth on the day that her new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," was released.  Read the full story on Forbes:   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my colleague, Justin Conklin, the Deputy Director of Editorial Operations. Justin,

00:12thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me.

00:15It is a huge day. If you are a Swifty, Taylor Swift's latest album just dropped,

00:20The Life of a Showgirl. And you've lifted before for Forbes the curtain on the pop mogul.

00:25She's a billionaire who continues to be part of the zeitgeist.

00:28And even if you were on social media last night, you saw people waiting in anticipation for

00:34midnight for this album to drop. People were live streaming their reactions as they were

00:37listening to this. People are breaking them down. People have been figuring out what Easter eggs are

00:43where for the past months and really for the past years, ever since Taylor Swift became an artist.

00:48I mean, why do you think and how is she able to stay so relevant even when she's had a career

00:53that has spanned now close to 20 years? Well, I think a lot of things go into it,

00:58right? So she's reinvented herself so many times. I think part of that was stemmed in

01:03the fear of being replaced by the music industry. So she had to keep being something new with each

01:08new album release. At the same time, she's come across as relatable, especially across her social

01:13media presence. And she's given people music that's granted the permission to feel their

01:17emotions and kind of, in the words of Dr. Ramsey from Penn State Berks, who taught a course on

01:23Taylor Swift, giving people the vocabulary to know what they were feeling. She's also extremely

01:31relatable outside of her music. And I know that's hard to imagine with a billionaire celebrity. But if

01:38you think about some of the celebrities that you see in paparazzi photos, they're wearing like

01:42$8,000 t-shirts, right? I'm never going to be able to afford that. But if you take a look at Taylor,

01:47especially from this past summer, you might see her in a dress that retails for around $200.

01:53That's affordable. That's relatable. People could buy that dress if they like it

01:57and kind of emulate Taylor Swift's style in that way.

02:01And the things that she talks about in her songs are extremely relatable.

02:05It doesn't matter if you're a billionaire like Taylor Swift or you're just an everyday person.

02:10I mean, you can relate to things like heartbreak, like friendship changes, things like that. And

02:16I want to get to that point of reinventing herself because sometimes artists do that and it's not as

02:22successful. I mean, when you look at Taylor Swift, she started out in country. She's every album has a

02:28different flavor to it. How do you think she's able to reinvent herself so well? And why do you think

02:35people resonate with that so much? Why do you think people don't get sick of her yet? Because

02:40I mean, every year she's released a new album in the past couple of years. She went on that massive

02:45Eros tour. She is continuously a major cultural touchpoint. I mean, her appearance on the New

02:53Heights podcast with her now fiance, Travis Kelsey and his brother smashed records. Why can't people get

02:59enough? I think it goes back to the, you know, relatability. I think that it's not necessarily

03:07about the genre of music that she's currently putting her records in or through. It's the words

03:13that she's using and the feelings and emotions that she's expressing and the scenarios that she's

03:17painting with words, with her songs, with her lyrics that people are resonating with. They're

03:23seeing themselves in pieces of Taylor that she's chosen to share with her audience.

03:29And how do you think specifically that reinvention has helped her bottom line because she's a

03:35billionaire? She is. I mean, it doesn't hurt, right? Like, you know, that with each new album,

03:43you're going to get something completely different and something completely unexpected. And I think

03:47that life of the showgirl is no different. We just had a double album anthology release with

03:53the torture poets department, which was kind of depressing, you know, if we're being completely

03:59honest. And this one is the antithesis of that. It's poppy, it's bright, it's fun, and it's

04:06quick. So I think people are going to be able to listen to this on repeat and not get bored

04:10of it anytime soon.

04:11I want to touch on her fan base a little bit. The Swifties are extremely loyal. If you were

04:15scrolling on social media last night leading up to midnight, or even this morning and beyond,

04:20people were waiting up for the album release. They're listening to it right at midnight.

04:24They're recording their reactions. Some videos, people were recording themselves crying, talking

04:29about the album as they were listening to it in real time. I mean, she generates this fierce

04:35allegiance with her fans. They consistently shell out a large amount of money for merch,

04:40for the album. The air tour tickets were not cheap. They're constantly looking out for Easter

04:46eggs that could or could not be in her music, in her social media, in other marketing, and seeing

04:52what that means, trying to predict the future for Taylor Swift. How lucrative do you think

04:57this really rabid fan base is for her bottom line?

05:01I mean, very, right? If people weren't going to her shows, weren't buying whatever merchandise

05:06she's dropping, weren't buying the records and all the variants, she wouldn't be a billionaire.

05:14I would point out that her billionaire status really came about because of the air was tour.

05:19It grossed over $2 billion in ticket sales alone. And fans were spending an average of around $900

05:26to travel to these shows and dropping around $50 on average for merchandise. And a lot of people did

05:32that multiple times.

05:34And I mean, I saw things on social media of fans going around the world, leaving the country,

05:41making an international trip out of seeing Taylor Swift. Forbes pegged her as a billionaire in October

05:47of 2023. So just two years ago, how was she able to reach that status just through her music? Because

05:53when you think about ultra wealthy artists, I'm thinking of Selena Gomez, I'm thinking of Rihanna,

05:58they all they have different companies like Fenty, like Rare Beauty. Taylor Swift, it seems has just made

06:04this on her music alone.

06:07Yeah, she became a billionaire with a combination of cash earned through touring and selling merch,

06:12movie tickets, things like that, and the value of her music catalog that she now owns.

06:17When it comes to Taylor Swift, I think it's really important to remember that the product

06:20that she's selling is Taylor Swift. I don't really see her creating something that isn't music or arts

06:25related. Do I need a Taylor Swift branded tequila? No. Would I buy it? Probably. I mean,

06:31it would be very aesthetically pleasing.

06:33To that point, though, I think a lot of celebrities from what you see, do we need an X branded this

06:41product? The answer is no, but they'll still put their face all over it. And Taylor Swift doesn't

06:47do that. Do you think that's really helpful to her brand?

06:50I think so. 100%. I think any merchandise that she releases, I'm thinking specifically about like

06:56the cardigans that she released along, you know, with her with her albums. It's more about the

07:01aesthetic. It's more about the vibe. It's more about the feeling. And it's not so much about

07:06putting her image on that thing. It's about making that thing a part of her world.

07:13And I think something that you said about Taylor Swift at the beginning of this conversation

07:17is her relatability. And people relate to these lyrics. I mean, once again, if you scroll on social

07:24media, you're seeing people dissect those lyrics and kind of put them and compare them to their own

07:30lives. And it seems like whenever Taylor Swift releases an album, you almost get a window into

07:36her life. Like you said, the tortured poets department, that's was a different vibe than

07:41this one. You can tell that she's in a really fun era of her life. It might not be as serious as

07:48folklore or another album like that. This seems really fun, really light. What do you think the

07:54life of a showgirl will ultimately do for her fortune? I think it's only going to increase it.

08:00I mean, she's she's already released around nine different vinyl variants. The cardigan comes along

08:07with the CD and that's going to bump her unit sales as well. And so I think we're just going to see her

08:12continue her trajectory of of more. I think that the majority of her earnings in the future is going

08:19to come from her music that she's she now owns. She owns all of her masters. And I think if she

08:25goes on tour again, that's going to hit big numbers. Taylor Swift has been really part of the national

08:30dialogue for almost 20 years. People love her. People have criticized her music. We have a really

08:37interesting perch at Forbes looking at the money component of Taylor Swift, as well as Taylor Swift,

08:43the celebrity. As a fan of her music, what do you think from the position you're in at Forbes, knowing

08:49the money component behind it? What do you think is missing from the national and really international

08:54conversation when it comes to Taylor Swift? I think we need to focus less on whether we like her or hate

09:03her and really appreciate the businesswoman that she is and the acumen that she brings to her business

09:09because at the end of the day, Taylor Swift is a incredibly smart businesswoman. She went after

09:14her masters. She re-recorded all of the masters that she was missing to essentially devalue the ones

09:23that were sold out from underneath her. And so at the end of the day, she decided she was going to win

09:28and she did. To that point, what type of businesswoman do you think Taylor Swift is?

09:33I think she's incredibly savvy. I think she has given us a masterclass time and time again

09:38on not accepting the answer that's given to her if she doesn't like it. She was not afraid to pull

09:44her music off Spotify when she felt that artists weren't being paid an appropriate amount of money

09:48for streaming. She re-recorded her masters when they were sold out from underneath her

09:53and essentially devalued someone else's investment. And so I think she's very protective

09:59of what is hers and I think rightly so. And I know that she just went on that massive

10:06ERA's tour recently. Do you think we're going to see any type of stadium tour, perhaps

10:12in ERA's another round with the life of a showgirl?

10:15I'm not sure what to expect. I mean, if you pay attention to what's happening on the internet

10:21and TikTok, creators are definitely speculating about what's next for her. I've seen rumors

10:26that she's going to have a Vegas residency or perhaps a show at the Sphere. I don't think

10:32we're going to see a tour until after she's married. I think the ERA's tour was incredibly

10:37long and incredibly well done. And she herself has said in interviews that she doesn't want

10:42to go on tour again unless she can do it incredibly well.

10:46Justin Conklin, I appreciate your insight here. Thank you so much for joining me.

10:51Thanks so much for having me.

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