How Taylor Swift became a billionaire: Hit music, record-breaking tours, luxury real estate and more

Taylor Swift was officially named a billionaire by Forbes in April 2024 — less than two decades after she made her 2006 music industry debut.

The global pop star had a record-breaking 2023, including boosting the economy with her Eras Tour and being crowned Time’s Person of the Year, but she has been making many smart business moves for many years in order to secure her fortune. Here’s a look at everything Swift has done to garner a $1.1 billion net worth by the age of 34.

Ahead of Scooter Braun selling Swift’s masters for more than $300 million in a controversial deal, the Grammy winner announced plans to re-record her first five albums. Swift — who signed with Universal Music Group in 2018 after kicking off her career under Big Machine Records — has since released new “Taylor’s Version” albums for “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red” and “1989.” She is rumored to be dropping the re-recorded version of “Reputation” sometime in 2024.

Aside from her old records, however, Swift has also seen major success with her new albums —Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Evermore (2020) and Midnights (2022) — under Universal Music Group. The hard-working pop star recently shocked fans in February when she announced she is releasing another album — “The Tortured Poets Department” — on April 19, 2024. As of 2019, Swift has earned $400 million from her music catalog alone, Bloomberg reports. Swift reportedly made close to $130 million from her streams on Spotify alone in 2023.

Per Variety, she accumulated a total of about 26.1 billion streams last year, and based on an average of $0.0035 cents per listen, she would have earned the whopping total sum by that December. However, it is likely that amount is even larger because — as Billboard previously pointed out — there are other streaming services such as Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music, pushing that total closer to an estimated $160 million.

Swift has reportedly made $80 million from her music royalties, according to Bloomberg. Royalties are accrued when copyrighted music is used in other licensing deals, such as movies and commercials, and therefore a compensatory payment is made to the rights holders such as songwriters, composers and recording artists.

Her songs have been featured in shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” and movies including “Fifty Shades Darker” and “The Hunger Games,” as well as various commercials and campaigns. Swift’s Eras Tour became the highest grossing tour by any musician of all time, earning more than $1 billion, according to Rolling Stone.

The outlet reported in December 2023 that Swift sold about 4.3 million tickets at an average price of $238. Bloomberg estimated in October 2023 that the “Wildest Dreams” singer grossed more than $700 million in ticket sales and $225 million in just tour merchandise, making her $370 million in profit after taxes. Callie Cox, a financial analyst for investment company eToro, told The Post Swift’s Eras Tour show stops have boosted the local economies of each city.

“Every weekend, the city that she visits releases the data around hotel occupancies and just the amount of money generated for each local economy — and it’s in the millions,” Cox said in June 2023. Swift’s impressive real estate portfolio has undoubtedly contributed to her overall wealth. The “Blank Space” singer owns five homes across the US, totaling approximately $150 million.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Swift’s first investment was a 3,240-square-foot penthouse on Nashville’s Music Row at the Adelicia condominium for $1.9 million, which she bought at age 19.