Being Taylor Swift is big business. And being a fan is starting to feel like an expensive hobby. Photo / Getty Images
Being Taylor Swift is big business. And being a fan is starting to feel like an expensive hobby. Photo / Getty Images
THE FACTS
Taylor Swift’s extensive marketing and merchandise efforts have made her a significant business force.
Her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, broke streaming records and generated massive sales.
Being a Swift fan is increasingly expensive, with merchandise and media offerings totalling thousands.
ANALYSIS: Taylor Swift, you need to calm down. Take a break. Put your feet up. Let your marketing and merchandise team take a breath or a holiday. Oh god, holidays. They’ll be working extra hard this Christmas, won’t they?
She can sing, she can dance, but if there’sone thing Swift really knows how to do, it’s flog a dead horse, milk a cow dry and other outdated sayings that, quite honestly, border on animal abuse. From multiple versions of album releases (Vinyl! CD! Cassette!?) to extensive merchandise, huge global tours and an ability – and willingness – to put her name on almost anything and then pop it on her website for sale, it’s no mystery why Forbes estimates Swift’s net worth to be US$1.6 billion ($2.8b)
Being Taylor Swift is big business. And being a fan is starting to feel like an expensive hobby.
Anyone with an eye on the internet and an ear to the radio will know who Swift is. But if your eyes and ears are being put to use elsewhere, here are the quickest of headlines:
She released her first (country) album in 2006 aged 16; released her latest (pop) album in October aged 35; released 10 other albums (ranging from country to pop) in the 19 years in between; re-released four of those albums that she re-recorded between 2001 and 2003 because she didn’t own her original music; and bought her own music back this year.
She’s won 14 Grammy Awards, been on an awards stage with Kanye West about two times, spent almost two years on the road with her record-breaking Eras tour that grossed more than $2b, did a podcast with her American football-playing boyfriend Travis Kelce and his equally athletic brother Jason, and got engaged immediately after, temporarily breaking the internet.
Then, at the beginning of October, she released The Life of a Showgirl (TLOAS), her 12th studio album. And once again, records were smashed.
In business terms, AKA terms Swift would understand best, by the end of release day, TLOAS had become Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2025, her song The Fate of Ophelia, the most-streamed song in a single day in Spotify history. But when it’s Swift we’re talking about, it’s never just about the music.
Before TLOAS was even on (digital) shelves the album was the most pre-saved in Spotify’s history – more than five million times – and a Swift-branded cardigan (a subtle orange glitter knit number) priced at US$70 ($122) sold out faster than you could say “where would I wear an orange glitter cardigan?” It’s the eighth cardigan Swift has released in conjunction with an album. Niche, but successful.
And that was just the beginning. Over the weekend TLOAS was released, cinemas around the world were swarmed with Swifties watching The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, a 90-minute film that included a new music video (played twice), some behind-the-scenes footage and song explainers and lyric tracks. Some Auckland cinemas had more than 20 sessions of the film scheduled on the Saturday alone and globally, it made more than $50 million at the box office. Cha-ching. And this week, it’s been announced a six-part Eras Tour docuseries will start on Disney+ in December.
Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl. Photo / @taylorswift via Instagram
Does it matter that this album has been called “regressive” (the Guardian), “schmaltzy” (Pitchfork) or “better if you don’t take Taylor Swift – the artist, the persona, the person – so seriously” (Teen Vogue)? Or that many fringe fans have questioned whether, perhaps Swift would have been better served by taking a little holiday with her big handsome fiance, rather than squeezing in trips to Sweden and her producer Max Martin every few days to record this album while on that Eras Tour?
Honestly, no, not really. The Taylor Swift Economy seems unstoppable at this point. But what does it actually cost to be part of her world?
Here’s what Swift is selling on her own website, just for the release of The Life of a Showgirl*... and the price fans would pay for all of it.
A selection of products being sold on Taylor Swift's merchandise website.
