How Taylor Swift Hacked the Music Industry

Unfortunately, the West has not disconnected Russia from SWIFT in the two years of full-scale war in Ukraine. Instead of including this measure in the list of sanctions, it included Swift in another list—the series of traditional Time magazine covers of the year. However, this is not about the interbank payment system, but about its namesake—an American singer Taylor Swift, who was awarded the title "Person of the Year." Was it deserved? Let's figure it out.

The 33-year-old artist won the prestigious nomination, surpassing Barbie, King Charles III, prosecutors in Donald Trump's case, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Hollywood strike participants, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, China's leader Xi Jinping, and world terrorist No. 1 Vladimir Putin (for example, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of mass abduction of Ukrainian children—for those interested in which direction to move to get noticed by the legendary weekly). 

So, what did Taylor Swift do in 2023 to stand out among her closest competitors in the nomination and all the other 8 billion people on the planet?

It's simple—this year, the singer, who began building her career in the early 2000s as a country music star, set a series of cultural and commercial records. As a result, discussing Swift—her wealth, statements, dance moves, fashion sense, and so on—became the same as discussing the weather for hundreds of millions of her fervent fans (and those who, by circumstance, found themselves nearby).

Move over, Elton!

Elton John currently holds the world record for concert ticket sales—he concluded his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour" in the summer, earning $900 million. The second place in the ranking is occupied by Taylor Swift—2.4 million tickets for "The Eras Tour" were sold on the first day alone (an absolute record), and the total box office reached $790 million. However, the 2023 tour ended only halfway. The final results are expected after the last concert on August 17, 2024, in London—and something suggests there will be nine zeros.

Agree: when one person and her team earn as much in a year as some small African or Latin American country—that's impressive. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia even mentioned Swift in its June report, commending the singer for stimulating the local economy. Overall, every city on "The Eras Tour" reported a rapid and powerful revitalization of local businesses and tourism. And some mayors, succumbing to the so-called "swift-mania," even temporarily renamed their cities after the singer. Thus, Pittsburgh became Swiftsburgh for one weekend, Santa Clara became Swiftie Clara, and Minneapolis became Swiftieapolis.

The Savior of Cinemas

Photo: Tour poster of Taylor Swift, Source: Instagram

From late spring to early fall in the USA, the Writers Guild went on strike, protesting, among other things, against producers intending to replace professional writers with generative artificial intelligence. However, unexpectedly, Taylor Swift replaced everyone—both the writers and the movie bosses. While Hollywood writers, waving posters, wandered the streets, and anxious producers grabbed their heads, not knowing what to do with the suspended film production—a woman from the cover of Time magazine essentially saved the entire fall box office.

The concert film "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" became the highest-grossing in history (in the respective category). In just a month and a half—by the end of autumn, it collected $250 million. Perhaps the reason people flocked to see Swift in cinemas is the same as with her concerts—everyone wants to feel connected to something grand. Interestingly, in theaters, people behaved as if they were at a stadium—they danced, shot videos for social media, and took selfies against the "stage." At the same time, there was no warning about responsibility for copyright infringement, as is usually shown before the start of a screening. On the contrary, viewers were encouraged to immerse themselves as if they were attending a real live show.

Capitalism On the Ropes

In addition to her spectacular tour and highly successful film, Swift surprised everyone this year with a lesson on how artists can not only write great songs but also fight for them. Her battle for respect from labels towards creators began in 2018 when her contract with "Big Machine Records" expired. Upon parting ways, she aimed to retain ownership of the master copies of her first six albums, but this proved unsuccessful. Explaining her epic feud with the label, Swift told Time magazine that they find it profitable to replace old musicians with new ones, leading to the end of many artists' careers by the age of 29 (hit 30 and retire!). Swift decided to show that musicians are more important than the labels promoting them. She simply switched record companies from one where an agreement was impossible to one that accepted all her terms.

Swift signed a contract with "Republic Records," agreeing to the main point: master copies of new songs remain hers forever. Furthermore, she began re-recording her old albums to become the owner of the master copies of those as well. To achieve this, she made some insignificant changes to the recordings and labeled the albums as "Taylor’s version." Surprisingly, some of these reworks became more successful than the originals! For example, the album "1989 (Taylor’s version)," released in October this year, became Swift's sixth collection of songs to sell over a million copies in the first week, surpassing the success of the original "1989" from 2014 and becoming the best-selling vinyl album of the 21st century.

First Billion

Photo: Singing Billionaire Taylor Swift, Source: Instagram

According to Bloomberg, this October, Taylor Swift's wealth exceeded one billion dollars for the first time—most of which she earned from the tour and the film about it. Speaking of the film: the singer knows how to outsmart not only money-hungry music producers but also demonstrated how to live peacefully without the dictates of film studios. To avoid losing huge sums on their dubious distribution services, Swift achieved the incredible: she directly negotiated with American exhibitors and secured herself a 57% share of the profit. No one had been able to do something similar before.

Also, in 2023, the singer has already garnered over 26 billion listens on Spotify worldwide. According to experts' calculations, her annual royalty will exceed $100 million—this is a record for the platform. Listening to Swift on Apple, YouTube, and Amazon services (about 40 billion in total) will add another approximately $160 million to her coffers. A hardworking pop star who knows how to set goals and pursue them despite any obstacles has managed to create a real business empire. Transforming all her activities into mountains of money, she rightly entered the Olympus of the music industry, where, besides her, the honored ones are Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna.

Source of Light

Photo: Someone Who "Carries the Light", Source: Collage The Gaze

Okay, but does Taylor Swift—well, this... how to put it...—have talent? Or, perhaps, is her insane success solely the result of successful publicity and marketing? We well remember how in 2009, the singer received the MTV award for the best video of the year ("You Belong with Me"), but an outraged Kanye West stormed the stage, snatched the microphone from Swift, and claimed that another video—the one for Beyoncé's "Single Ladies"—deserved the award. Maybe he was right? Well, there is an option to listen to professional critics who compare Swift's song style with the works of geniuses like Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney.

However, it's better to think about something else. When millions of people gather in cinemas or stadiums, infected by some crazy pop-cultural phenomenon—that's one thing. Another thing is when they consciously make their musical choice, staying alone. Albums like Taylor Swift's "Lover" (2019), "Folklore" (2020), and "Evermore" (2020) are often called the "soundtrack to the pandemic." Would her songs, mere pop tunes, become widely listened to if people were isolated in their apartments during long, dark, and depressing months—without work, live communication, and any hope that it would all end someday? Probably not.

Explaining the Time magazine's editorial choice, its head, Sam Jacobs, said that selecting a person who embodied all 8 billion people on the planet in 2023 proved very difficult. Therefore, the decision was made to stop at someone who "carries the light." Oh, if only that light that so beautifully pours from concert stadiums could indeed momentarily dispel all the current global darkness, like the horrific attacks by HAMAS barbarian gangs on Israel or the atrocities on the occupied territories of Ukraine by the bloody Russian horde.