Taylor Swift is the first musician to reach billionaire status off of her music earnings primarily
Taylor Swift’s nearly two-decade-long career has culminated in the past couple of years, cementing her status as not only one of the most iconic pop singers, but also the wealthiest female musician ever.
The “Cruel Summer” singer has amassed an impressive net worth of $1.6 billion as of October 2024, according to Forbes. While other female musicians have broken the billionaire rank, such as Rihanna, Swift is the first to do it off of primarily her music.
Swift’s highly successful Eras tour and impressive music catalog — especially since she started re-releasing her albums in 2019 — have contributed to $1.2 billion of her wealth, while her real estate portfolio has reportedly contributed $125 million.
When it comes to breaking records and glass ceilings, Swift told TIME in December 2023 that she hopes her success will inspire people to invest more in women.
“What has existed since the dawn of time? A patriarchal society. What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy,” she said. “So actually, if we’re going to look at this in the most cynical way possible, feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It’s extremely heartening.”
From the whopping success of her musical career to her real estate portfolio, here’s everything to know about how Taylor Swift amassed her net worth.
How much is Taylor Swift worth?
According to Forbes, Swift is worth $1.6 billion, making her the richest female musician in the world as of October 2024. She has amassed $600 million from royalties and touring and another estimated $600 million from her music catalog. She also is estimated to have $125 million in real estate.
The 14-time Grammy Award winner has been releasing music since she was 15 years old and has 11 original studio albums. In 2019, she began re-recording her older music after her previous label, Big Machine Records, sold the company — including the rights to Swift’s master recordings — to Scooter Braun.
So far, she has re-released four albums, starting with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021. The album featured re-recordings of all the original songs and six new songs “from the vault” that weren’t in the original record.
The album went no. 1 and had the biggest opening week of any 2021 album at that point. The other three releases since — 2021’s Red (Taylor’s Version), 2023’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 2023’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — have all been met with equally massive success, in addition to the five new albums Swift has released in that time.
In March 2023, Swift embarked on her Eras tour, which will end in December 2024. The show spans decades of Swift’s work, resulting in a three-and-a-half-hour 44-song setlist across 10 studio albums, not including 2024’s The Tortured Poet Department.
What are Taylor Swift’s album and tour sales?
Swift has broken several records with her tour and album sales. In December 2023, the Eras tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, amassing over $1 billion, dethroning Elton John’s years-long Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, per Rolling Stone.
The tour’s ticket gross sales were larger than the two second-highest-grossing tours combined, per data from Pollster.
In addition to the tour, Swift released an accompanying concert film which premiered in October 2023 and was the biggest concert film debut ever, bringing in $92.3 million at the box office opening weekend and $200 million globally the following weekend.
Swift’s album sales have also cemented her icon status, with the re-release of 1989 in November 2023 marking Swift’s biggest album debut of her career at the time. The album skyrocketed to the no. 1 spot on the Billboard charts and sold 1.6 million units in the U.S. (and over 3.5 million units worldwide), breaking the record Swift previously set for herself with the original release of the album in 2014 at 1.287 million units.
Swift beat her own record again with the release of 2024’s The Tortured Poet Department, which sold 2.61 million album units in its first week, according to Variety. The album spent 15 nonconsecutive weeks at the no. 1 spot on the Billboard charts, largely thanks to the numerous different versions Swift released weekly.
What has Taylor Swift donated to charity?
The “Shake It Off” singer has quietly donated to various causes throughout her career, from contributing $100,000 to the family of a woman killed at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in February 2024 to donating $1 million for natural disaster relief after storms in Tennessee in December 2023.
Throughout the Eras tour, Swift donated money to food banks in many of the cities in which her show stopped, including the Edinburgh Food Project and the Arizona Food Bank Network.
The singer has not only been generous with food banks across the world, but she’s also given large bonuses to every person working who worked on her massive tour.
In August 2023, sources confirmed to PEOPLE that the pop star gave bonuses totaling over $50 million to every staff member of her team, from her dancers to riggers, sound technicians and catering.
What has Taylor Swift said about her worth?
Swift has been open about how other stars taking a chance on her when she was starting out in her career afforded her the opportunity to grow as a singer, and how she wants to do the same for women globally.
In her December 2023 interview with TIME, Swift reflected on how a check from country star Kenny Chesney changed her life after she was unable to join him on tour when she was 17. The singer felt bad, so he sent her the money for her 18th birthday a few months later.
“It was for more money than I’d ever seen in my life,” Swift said. “I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.”
Now, Swift hopes to inspire women to fight their wealth in a patriarchal world.
