Taylor Swift reached billionaire status thanks to her showstopping Eras Tour — see how the pop star makes and spends her fortune
- Taylor Swift's net worth is $1.1 billion, Bloomberg News reported and Forbes confirmed.
- The pop star is a prolific songwriter who's amassed a significant fortune throughout her career.
- Here's how Swift earns and spends her fortune, from real estate to charitable donations.
Taylor Swift never fails to impress.
At 15 years old, she was the youngest songwriter to ever sign with Sony. She now has 14 Grammys on her shelf β including four for album of the year, the most of any artist in history β several tours under her belt, 11 studio albums, a long list of chart-topping songs, and a beloved fan base who dub themselves "Swifties."
Such success makes Swift one of the world's highest-paid celebrities and one of the richest female singers. According to aΒ Bloomberg News analysis published on the eve of her "1989" album rerelease, Swift has officially built a billion-dollar empire.
Forbes later confirmed her $1.1 billion net worth, citing in part her massive Eras Tour and its subsequent concert movie.
Swift has been strategic and generous with her money, investing in a sprawling $84 million real-estate portfolio and often donating to causes she supports.
See how Swift earns and spends her fortune below.
Hillary Hoffower,Β Libby Torres, and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to a previous version of this article.
According to Forbes, which published a series of 2024 billionaire reports on Tuesday, Swift is the first musician to reach 10-figure status solely based on songwriting and performing (rather than brand deals or business ventures).
Swift's vast fortune is primarily thanks to her valuable discography and earnings from streaming deals, music sales, concert tickets, and merchandise.
Representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment regarding the Forbes report.
Swift's 21-month, five-continent Eras Tour was nothing short of a sensation. By the end of its first year, it had become the first tour ever to gross over $1 billion in revenue, on track to become the highest-grossing tour of all time.Β
In October 2023, after Swift toured 56 dates across the US and Mexico, the Eras Tour had already generated $780 million andΒ added $4.3 billion to America's gross domestic product, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Throughout 2024, Swift also made stops in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, and 11 countries throughout Europe.
The morning of Swift's final performance in Vancouver, The New York Times reported that the Eras Tour had crossed the $2 billion threshold, making it the first concert tour in history to do so.
This figure was confirmed by Taylor Swift Touring, the singer's production company. All 149 stadium shows were sold out, and the company said over 10 billion people attended the Eras Tour.
That means the average ticket sold for $204, well above the industry average for top concert tours, per The New York Times. Resale tickets were even pricier, often going for thousands of dollars in secondhand markets. (Artists like Swift don't earn anything from resold tickets.)
Worldwide ticket presales had already exceeded $100 million before "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" was released (a day early) on October 12, 2023, AMC Theatres reported.
According to ticketing service Fandango, the film set a record for the highest first-day ticket sales in 2023. It has also become the highest-grossing concert movie of all time, surpassing "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never."
Swift, who bypassed movie studios to personally fund the concert movie, received half of the box office earnings for the film, which grossed $261 million worldwide.
Once "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" had left theaters, Swift struck a deal with Disney+ to release the film's extended version on streaming.
According to Puck News, Disney paid upwards of $75 million for the exclusive rights.
Citing anonymous sources, the outlet reported that Disney's Bob Iger outbid Netflix and Universal Pictures (which handled VOD distribution for the film in December) for the streaming rights by offering a huge sum, which the other two streamers couldn't match.
Shortly before the Eras Tour concluded, Swift released a photo book for Black Friday.
As she did with the Eras Tour film, Swift circumvented traditional routes and opted to self-publish instead, ensuring she would get more of the book's revenue.
The book was exclusively available at Target and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in its first weekend, becoming the second-best-selling non-fiction title after Barack Obama's presidential memoir.
These partnerships include Capital One, AT&T, Stella McCartney, Elizabeth Arden perfumes, American Express, Keds, Diet Coke, Walmart, and Apple.
That figure is according to the Los Angeles Times.
At the time, the Reputation Stadium Tour broke the record for the highest-grossing US tour ever, according to Billboard. Swift earned an average of $7 million per show, more than double the US per-concert average during the "1989" tour.
In April 2023, Forbes estimated that Swift's coveted on-site merchandise β which she sells at an average price of $80 βcould add an estimated $87 million in proceeds to her fortune.
Swift's 11th studio album, "The Tortured Poets Department," was released on April 19, 2024. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 withΒ 2.61 million equivalent album units soldΒ in its first week.
This sum was thanks to huge streaming totals and physical album sales,Β especially vinyl, which Swift sells more successfully than anyone else. According to a Billboard report from November 2023,Β one in every 15 vinyl albums sold in the USΒ is one of Swift's.
Fans continued to buy and stream "Poets" throughout the year,Β sending it to No. 1 for 16 weeks total, the most of any album in 2024.
On November 30, 2024, "Poets" was certified 6x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, meaning it has sold at least 6 million copies in the US.
According to The Guardian, Swift's massive album sales for "Midnights" brought in $230 million for Swift's label Universal.Β
With more than 1.5 million equivalent album units earned in the US in its first week, "Midnights" landed the biggest week for an album in seven years (since Swift's own album "Reputation").
Swift embarked on a mission to rerecord her first six albums after Scooter Braun, whom she accused of "incessant, manipulative bullying," purchased the legal rights to her back catalog in 2019. (He later sold the master recordings to a private-equity company.)
She released the first installment in the series, "Fearless (Taylor's Version)," in 2021. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 β indicating this would be a lucrative venture for Swift. Later that year, Swift's new version of "Red" became one of the year's top-selling albums.
The two rerecorded albums helped plant Swift on the "The Highest-Paid Entertainers 2022" report from Forbes.
She has since released "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version)." The latter sold over 1.6 million equivalent units in its first week, surpassing the original's total.
In fact, Swift is the only artist who's sold over 1 million copies of an album in one week since Adele released "30" in November 2015. In that window, Swift has achieved the feat four different times.
The latter is the cheapest property she owns.
In 2017, she was trying to turn it into a historic landmark, according to Teen Vogue.
With 12,000 square feet, it has plenty of room for parties and even inspired her song "The Last Great American Dynasty."
That includes an 8,309-square-foot duplex penthouse and a four-story townhouse.
She used to rent an apartment on Cornelia Street β the famous inspiration behind her "Lover" track "Cornelia Street" β which was listed in 2023 with a $17.9 million price tag.
The Dassault 7X is registered to Island Jet Inc., a holding company listed under the same address as Taylor Swift Productions, Business Insider previously reported.
She used to have two private jets, but quietly sold one amid criticism of her carbon footprint. ("Taylor's jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals,"Β a rep for Swift said in a statement. "To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.")
There's no word on how much she paid for these vehicles, but a brand new Dassault 900 has a list price of $44 million, according to Business Jet Traveler. Elon Musk owns a similar model that cost about $26 million.
In the past, she's been spotted at The Fat Radish, The Spotted Pig, Sarabeth's, L'Asso, Nobu, and Vita Carota.
On her 24th birthday, she donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony, according to People.
Her commitment to education doesn't stop with music; Swift also donated $50,000 to NYC public schools, People reported.
In 2010, Swift donated $500,000 to Nashville flood reliefΒ and in 2016, she donated $1 million to the victims of Louisiana floods.
Swift also raised $750,000 through a Speak Now Help Now benefit concert for victims of tornadoes in the southern US in 2011, according to People.
Most recently, Swift donated $5 million to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
She and her mom Andrea Swift quietly made the donation, according to USA Today.
She also gifted $13,000 each to two moms who were also struggling financially because of the pandemic.
Swift has long been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, threading references to the fight for equal rights into songs like "Welcome to New York" and "You Need to Calm Down."
Back in 2016, Swift participated in a charity auction to help keep the historic Stonewall Inn operational. The New York City gay bar was the scene of a police raid in 1969, sparking a riot that helped launch the nationwide fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
In more recent years, Swift has made generous donations to the Tennessee Equality Project and GLAAD, in addition to her vocal support of The Equality Act.
The checks were sent out in 2014, according to People.
Throughout the first US leg of her Eras Tour, Swift habitually made large donations to local food pantries. She continued this tradition throughout the tour's European leg.
Swift has also been known to support victims of gun violence in recent years.
For several years, Kesha was embroiled in a defamation lawsuit after she accused the music producer Dr. Luke, her former mentor, of "unrelenting abuse" and rape. (Dr. Luke denied the allegations, and they reached a settlement in 2023.)
The "Rainbow" singer revealed Swift's donation during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017.
Kesha described Swift as "a fucking sweetheart. Very, very sweet, very, very genuine, extremely generous, picks up the phone every time I call her. My mom doesn't even always pick up the phone!"
In 2022, Swift pulled out of a $100 million sponsorship deal with Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX after she questioned the company if it was selling "unregistered securities."
AsΒ Business Insider reported, many other celebrities such as Tom Brady and Stephen Curry failed to do so and were subsequently sued for endorsing the now-bankrupt crypto exchange.