BERLIN, June 6 — The business magazine Forbes estimates that United States (US) pop superstar Taylor Swift has become the richest musician in history with a fortune of US$2 billion, representing a 100 per cent increase from 2024, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
Swift, 36, the singer behind massive hits such as Shake it Off, had achieved billionaire status in 2024 thanks to the Eras Tour.
Forbes called Swift one of the most commercially successful songwriters of all time.
In 2020, Swift changed the music industry when she re-recorded most of her discography. As a result, the royalties flowed into her own pocket.
Forbes also said her tour became the highest-grossing concert tour in history with revenues of US$2.2 billion. With the money, she bought back her original master recordings, the magazine said.
At the beginning of her career, Swift was signed to the Big Machine label and recorded her first six albums there.
As usual, the rights belonged to the label, which sold them in 2019 for more than US$300 million to a holding company of former music manager Scooter Braun.
Swift said this happened without consultation or her approval.
This was followed by a years-long public dispute, which Swift also often addressed in her songs.
In 2020, Braun sold the rights on, this time to the investment firm Shamrock Capital in Los Angeles, from which Swift has now acquired them.
In 2025, Swift announced that she had bought the rights to her first six albums.
Forbes’ billionaire rankings mostly draw on publicly available information on assets such as shares, property, artworks, and other luxury goods. The figures are considered inexact and are sometimes disputed.
