6 Taylor Swift as Business Woman

In an unprecedented move that no one could believe, just two days before the release of her album 1989, Taylor Swift pulled her entire discography from Spotify. She also wrote an open letter to the CEO of Apple Music publicly calling out the company for not paying artists during the three-month free trial (Bruner, 2023). Swift’s bold move accomplished several things: first, record sales for 1989 soared because it wasn’t available on Spotify, and second, Apple Music announced that artists, writers, and producers would be paid during the free-trial period within a few hours of Swift’s letter being published. Swift did not return her music to Spotify until 2017 (Bajarin, 2015). Swift made it clear that she was not to be messed with.

Is Swift’s ability to walk away from Spotify an anomaly? She deserves to be paid for her work, as does everybody, and pulling her music off of Spotify and Apple Music is a form of protest. Because Swift has enough influence in the music industry, this move worked. While it definitely benefited Swift, it also, and perhaps more importantly, helped many other artists. She made the streaming platforms better for all artists, using her influence to protect others’ profits and livelihoods as well. The support, education, and business training that Swift received growing up fuels her success; she is a smart business woman whose success as an empathetic artistic songwriter is fueled by her savvy.

Swift’s team is also savvy, and they are excellent about planning and managing her social media. Her team has curated a world in which it appears that most of Swift’s work consists of artistic songwriting. She is quoted over and over as standing strong in the face of adversity, and she encourages young women to “focus on the work” (Sloan, 2021). But what is the work? In a 2019 interview, Swift said that songwriting is “the element of my life that I hold most sacred” and that it is “my favorite part of my job” (Sloan, 2021). While there is a grand stage for Swift to speak about her art, being an artist isn’t the only thing it takes to earn the type of fame and success Swift has. While she has shown again and again that she also sees herself as a business woman, she doesn’t get enough credit for it.

A prominent feature of Swift’s expertise as a business woman is her ability to reinvent herself, appealing to audiences in different eras over time. For example, she completely reinvented herself and her music with the 2014 release of 1989. In addition to a new look and an album that was unquestionably pop music, rather than country, from start to finish, Swift boldly took on critics and incessant comments about her personal life head first. Swift was not shy in calling out double standards for women in the entertainment industry. She repeatedly pointed out how her songwriting skills were unfairly characterized as nothing more than female manipulation, because she certainly couldn’t be that talented as a woman (Tuccillo, 2019). Swift also addressed her haters in several tracks on the album by making fun of herself and her dating history. 1989 became her third album to sell over one million copies in the first week, and it made her the only artist to have three separate albums sell over a million copies that quickly (Mansfield, 2014).

Because the 1989 album was crossing over from country to pop, a new marketing strategy needed to be employed, and with 1989, we see a bold statement about not needing to fit into a box. In a world where the marketing standard is to be niche, Swift led in the opposite direction. After three previous albums, Swift had a substantial following but she wanted to expand and bring fans with her. She was able to promote the album extensively with media endorsements and other connections, all while keeping the album off of free streaming services, as, at the time, she felt streaming services damaged artists. By crossing successfully over into pop music, Swift secured her path in moving forward through her artistry. There are twelve songs on the album, including hits such as “Style,” “Welcome to New York,” and “Wildest Dreams.” The success of 1989 displays Swifts’ artistic strengths, and it marked Swift’s beginning battle with Spotify. This was undoubtedly the time period of Swift’s career when her business self took center stage. When 1989 was rereleased as Taylor’s Version in October 2023, it drastically surpassed sales of the original in the first week (Morris, 2023).

Swift came onto the music scene at the age of fourteen, and she had much support and education from her parents. Swift had an upbringing that primed her for a spotlight. Her parents were wealthy, and Swift had the privilege of attending both Montessori and private schools. By the age of nine, Swift was already on stage and traveling regularly into New York City for voice and acting lessons. Soon after this, her mother, a marketing manager, moved the family to Nashville because Swift saw a documentary on Faith Hill and wanted to move there. In 2003, Swift’s parents were able to hire a talent manager based out of New York City, and Swift started modeling and met with major record labels. From the time she was young, Swift learned the business of show business, just as much as she was learning to sing and play guitar. Her ability to access this knowledge and having parents who could access this world contributed to her success. She was trained up in the world of business along with artistic expression.

Swift is a master at marketing and branding. With the Lover album, she started releasing multiple variations of the same album. This quickly expanded with folklore, Midnights, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), and The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD). Swift began selling the same albums with different covers, and then she released different versions of the album with exclusive songs on each version. When each vinyl is released, fans have to buy them separately, which means they pay about $10 in shipping each time. If fans buy three or four variants of the same album, they end up paying the price of another vinyl in shipping. The separate releases also continue to promote the album as new and fresh. This is a powerful, if frustrating for fans, strategy that ultimately sells more units.

Similar to the exclusive editions/variations of her albums, Swift often releases clothing or merchandise that is available for only a limited time (but may reappear later). This strategy increases her profits as well. Fans buy these items at their high prices under the impression that they are getting something that is limited in quantity, and when it is rereleased later some fans feel betrayed. Although some of Swift’s marketing strategies hurt fans’ trust, it is good for business. The album variations and the “limited” releases of merchandise have all contributed to Swift’s success and wealth.

Other brand strategies include Swift as authentic and kind. She has invited fans to her house for baking and dance parties (Duboff, 2014). This sort of personal connection speaks to fans and makes them feel as if they are seen and heard by Swift, who is ultimately profiting off of their devotion to her. And these fans are loyal. Spotify tried to get her fans to convince her to come back. It didn’t work. Scooter Braun tried the same thing when he released some of the music he had purchased without Swift’s permission. He was hoping the fans would listen, but instead they avoided it. In fact, Braun has retired from music management, perhaps as a result of the fallout with Swift and her loyal fans (Aswad, 2024).

Other business trouble has occurred in Swift’s clash with Kanye West. In February 2016, West dropped his single “Famous” with lyrics that were clearly misogynistic and disrespectful towards Swift, and it reignited the feud that had, supposedly, been laid to rest from 2009. With the help of West’s wife at the time, Kim Kardashian, an altered recording was released, making it appear that Swift had given West approval to use the disparaging language toward her and that she even supported the ideas in his song. For whatever reason, the public was ready to jump on board the “Taylor Swift is a liar” train and followed Kardashian’s lead; Swift was torn apart online (Gavilanes & Dodd, 2023). All of the work Swift had done to make a name for herself as a credible business woman, and the fact she was adamant about women being treated with respect and equality, was seemingly destroyed. Swift was once again reduced to clickbait and media scandals. Feeling betrayed and like her life was completely out of control, Swift disappeared from the public eye for over a year.

Swift has stayed pretty quiet about the time she spent away from the public eye. She did reveal that she reset her priorities and spent time in a new romantic relationship. In November 2017, all of Swift’s social media went completely dark for forty-eight hours. When it came back, the profiles were filled with images of snakes, the very thing Swift had been compared to during the fight with Kardashian and West. Then her album reputation was released without any fanfare or publicity outside of Swift’s social media sites (Gavilanes & Dodd, 2023). While reputation may not have received the critical acclaim of her previous records, Swift had once again reinvented herself and had come out swinging. In April 2024, she released “thanK you aIMee” on the TTPD album. The song seems to reference Kardashian (with the capitalized letters spelling out “Kim”) and the lyrics note: “All that time you were throwing punches / I was building something.” The best revenge is to live well, and Swift has “built a legacy that you can’t undo.”

In July 2019, Swift’s former record label, Big Machine Records, sold the masters of her first six albums to manager Scooter Braun. This began one of the biggest feuds in the music industry and set Swift on a path to regain control of her art (Bonner, Garcia, & Olsen, 2024). Swift once again refused to give in to the pressure being exerted on her to be quiet and accept defeat. She decided instead to change the narrative. Swift announced in August 2019 that she would be rerecording all six of her original albums with the hopes that her fans would want to support her owning the things that she had written and created. By recreating those albums and branding them as “Taylor’s Version,” Swift has been able to reclaim the time, emotion, memories, and creativity that she poured into those albums. So far, her plan has worked out brilliantly. Four of her six albums have been rereleased as “Taylor’s Version,” and they have set sales records. The added “From the Vault” tracks included on each rerelease have been big hits as well. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was released in April 2021, followed closely by Red (Taylor’s Version) in November. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) came out in July 2023, and in October 2023 she rereleased 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (Bonner, Garcia, & Olsen, 2024).

Her business savvy is evident, and amidst rerecording, Swift dropped an album in August 2019 called Lover. Swift does not stop working, even during a pandemic, and she surprised the world when she shared a totally new style of album in July 2020 with folklore. The sound of that album was, yet again, a complete change from anything Swift had released previously, with a quiet indie vibe. The album is full of intimate, poetic stories and feels like taking a journey to a cabin in the woods. She recorded it while quarantined with then-beau Joe Alwyn, who co-wrote some of the music on the album. Swift released the sister album evermore in January 2021 to even more critical acclaim. It seemed as if she wanted to remind the world that she would not be contained to anyone’s idea of the music she should be making.

In October 2023, Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, and yet again amazed the world and her fans with new and different music. Swift’s albums have grown with her and are a reflection of the way she views life, emotional scars, love, successes, and failures. Midnights is a deep reflection on life not always turning out the way we would like, and when the clock strikes “midnight,” the fairy tale is over. The hopeful love songs of her youth are countered with the more cynical and poignant tracks on this album. The track “The Great War” addresses self sabotage in relationships and the fight to keep it from destroying things. The song “Anti-Hero” is a proclamation of self doubt, saying out loud all of the things so many of us, especially women, think about ourselves: that we are too much, too big, too loud, and not loveable or worth someone’s time. Swift also revealed in Midnights that her almost six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn was coming to a close (Spanos, 2022).

In November 2022, Swift announced The Eras Tour, the next stop on her road to success. She had not been able to tour since reputation in November 2018, and her fans were more than “ready for it.” What they have received in return for their loyalty is forty-four songs performed at the concert, spanning Swift’s many eras of music. By all accounts, it is one of the most incredible three hours of concert experience ever. The Era’s Tour has earned over one billion dollars, and the U.S. Travel Association estimated its total economic impact will be over $10 billion dollars, naming it the “Taylor Swift effect” (McCluskey, 2024).

Being both business-oriented and artistic seem to be at odds with each other, and it seems that we are still not at a place where these two ideas can be embodied in a woman. Perhaps Swift knows it too, and that is why she has constantly reinvented herself. Swift has mastered the ability to always negotiate who she is, and she has the tools and education to embody any persona that she wants to. That said, reinvention is powerful and highlights just how multidimensional we all are. To be human is to be complex.

Swift’s education and mentoring in the early years of her life seem to have helped her to navigate the ins and outs of the world of the rich and famous and have been vital to her success and handling of difficult situations and controversy. But even more than that, it is important to understand that she can be an artist and a master business woman; those two personas can exist together without threatening her authenticity. When Swift talks about her hard work, there is more to it than creativity or not giving up.

Is the loyalty that Swift engenders a result of her intimate and authentic marketing strategies? And are such personal strategies at odds with good business practice? Swift may be showing us that it is possible to be profit-driven and authentic. Her music and lyrics are genuine and personal, and she has great enthusiasm for what she does. Swift definitely pushes for profits, sometimes to the detriment of the authenticity she tries to portray to her fans. However, if she were a man, would we even be having this conversation or asking these questions?

Swift brings in enough money to run entire countries, all based on her self-composed music, lyrics, ideas, concepts. Her business savvy is on full display, and she is successful. She has grown up in the public eye, from a country music sweetheart to the person America loves to hate. Swift has dealt with all of it with more grace than so many of us would, proving time and again that she will not be defined by anyone else’s parameters. Swift has a lot more staying power than she has been given credit for, and much of this is due to her ability to navigate the business and marketing world.

References

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