The business of Taylor Swift - Part 1

Umm you might have heard of Taylor Swift… She’s one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She’s also estimated to be worth US$1.1 billion. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we take a gallop through her career. And we’re doing this in 2 parts because it’s hard to have a conversation about what it all means until you understand what she’s done. So in part 1, we’re covering:

• how she started out; 

• her recovery from a rough 2016; and

• her epic 2023 so far.

⏱️ Reading time: 7 minutes

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Let’s go back to the start…
Taylor Alison Swift was born in December 1989. Fans will know that year – she has an album named after it… She was born in Pennsylvania and named after the legendary muso James Taylor. Her dad was in finance, and her mum was in marketing.

Sounds like the perfect pedigree to become a star…
And look, it’s working out ok for her… Her early years were spent on a Christmas tree farm, and even then, she knew she wanted to be in music. Inspired by Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and other country stars of the time, by 13yo Taylor knew Nashville was the place to be.

That’s the home of country music?
It sure is. But she soo found out that she wasn’t the only kid with a dream of becoming a star. She knew she had to be different, and that’s when she learned guitar and started to develop her songwriting skills.

How did that go for her?
Her teachers say she was a natural. A development deal with Sony quickly came her way when she was 14yo – and then a year later in 2005, she signed a 6 record deal with the start-up label Big Machine Records.

Then what?
The following year, Taylor released her self-titled debut album, and it was a hit, climbing to #5 on the Billboard charts.

So she was off to a strong start…
She was, and from the beginning, she was involved in the making and promotion of her albums. She once said that Big Machine was a small operation, “so when they were releasing my first single, my mom and I came in to help stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio. We sat on the floor and did it because there wasn’t furniture at the label yet”.

It’s a far cry from her current career…
Yep, and early on, another really important part of her career started to form: her close relationship with her fans. At concerts, she would stay back and sign autographs until fans were gone, which sometimes lasted 2-3 hours.

That personal touch, eh?
Exactly, and she brought that as an early user of social media, especially on MySpace. What she would do was get her fans to tell her via MySpace whenever they heard her songs on the radio. She would then go to the radio stations and show them how engaged her fans were.

And after her debut?
Taylor’s second album Fearless was released in November 2008, and it featured her first 2 #1 Billboard songs - Love Story and You Belong with Me. It went on to become America’s top-selling album for 2009. She also had her first headlining concert, which grossed around US$65 million.

So the hype was growing…
… and her success just kept building for the next 3 albums. Speak Now, Red, and 1989 - each was bigger than what came before, and the tours got bigger and bigger. And throughout this time, she continued to cultivate a really deep relationship with her fans.

How?
She posted behind-the-scenes videos of her process on YouTube, and wrote a Tumblr blog where she could talk directly with her fans. And for several of her albums, she would hold ‘secret sessions’ just before it was released. These were events where she’d invite hand-picked superfans to her home and play them songs from the new album. But not everyone’s a fan…

When did things start to go sour?
It was relatively smooth sailing for Taylor until 2016 - the year that Taylor had public disputes with fellow musos Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West. There was a backlash against Taylor, and many people who weren’t tuned into her or had decided they weren’t fans started saying she was manipulative and a liar.

How did Taylor respond?
She basically disappeared from the spotlight for a year. But she wasn’t done… She was working on her sixth studio album Reputation, which is a self-scrutinising response to her fame and the conflicting narratives around her. It showed Taylor’s ability to own the conversations around her, and it was, once again, a big commercial hit.

So by my count, that’s 6 records…
Exactly, so it meant the end of Taylor’s initial deal with Big Machine Records. She signed a new deal with Universal Music Group – and as part of that deal, she negotiated a clause to benefit other artists.

How’d she do that?
Universal was an early investor in Spotify, and Taylor made it a condition of her contract that if Universal cashed out, it would share the proceeds with all of its artists.

Interesting…
And she was innovative in other ways… This part of the story starts when she learns that the rights to her first 6 albums were being sold by Big Machine to a record executive named Scooter Braun. She was frustrated that she wasn’t given the option to buy it herself, and it was clear that Braun - a guy she really doesn’t like - had no intention of selling her the rights to her music either.

What did she do?
Taylor essentially turned this setback into a defining moment. She decided to re-record her own versions of her old albums with extra content for fans.

So she’s essentially destroying the value of her original albums?
Yep, and she’s able to do that because of her relationship with her fans. As of last month, she’s released 4 of the 6 ‘Taylor’s Version’ albums, and each of them has once again been a success, heading to the top of the charts all over again.

But she’s still putting out new music?
Indeed - there was Lover, and then came the pandemic when Taylor went deep with Folklore and Evermore, which were also massive hits. Most recently, she released her tenth album Midnights.

And what about touring?
Taylor launched her Eras Tour, which is a recap of her entire career. You might have even got a ticket to it when it comes to Oz next year if you’re lucky? But in the US, the concert’s ticket sales infamously crashed Ticketmaster and sold out almost instantly.

How has the tour gone?
It’s massive. It has become a whole thing on social media, particularly on TikTok. And for all the people who didn’t get tickets - or Swifties who just can’t get enough - she released a film version of the show. That was only a few weeks ago, and it’s already the highest-grossing concert film in history.

Not too shabby…
And get this - the Eras tour will make something like US$780 million during the US leg of the tour. It’s also thought the Eras Tour could become the first concert tour in history to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.

Amazing.
She is - and next week, we’re going to go learn about Taylor’s business smarts and her wider impact on culture and the economy. Stay tuned…

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