Taylor Swift Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Taylor Swift is a billionaire, no shocker there — but where she stands against other A-listers is surprising to Us.
Forbes dropped their annual World’s Celebrity Billionaires list on Tuesday, April 2, with a slew of notable names that make a reported collective $31 billion. Swift, 34, actually came in at the bottom of the list at No. 14 (one off from her lucky number) with a reported net worth of $1.1 billion.
The publication noted that Swift made “$190 million post-tax earnings” from her Eras Tour concerts and made her “the first person to do it based solely on songwriting and performing.”
Other musicians gracing the list included Rihanna and Jay-Z, both of whom are also business owners.
Many working actors earn residual paychecks anytime that a TV show they appeared on air in reruns. Such sums even help stars such as Mandy Moore and Glen Powell pay their living expenses between jobs. “Ours is a fickle industry and in my 20+ years of being a performer, my career has ebbed and flowed,” Moore, […]
Rihanna, 36, was ranked in the No. 9 spot, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion. Aside from her music career, she also has stakes in “two billion-dollar brands,” Forbes reported, referencing Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty.
Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Jay-Z Daniele Venturelli;Frazer Harrison/Getty Images(2);Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Jay-Z, 54, was the highest-ranked musician at No. 5, with a reported $2.5 billion net worth. The rapper is more of an investor, with stakes in Uber and Block, and he also sold his stakes in Armand de Brignac and D’Usse liquor brands over the years. (Forbes noted that Jay-Z’s reported net worth does not include wife Beyoncé’s money.)
Perhaps the most surprising star that ranked ahead of Swift on this year’s list was Kim Kardashian, who came in at No. 6 with a reported net worth of $1.7 billion. Of course, the reality star’s Skims shapewear line has allowed her to make a bulk of money in recent years, as it was valued at $4 billion in 2023.
There’s a new way for your favorite musician stars to get paid, and it’s by selling the rights to their music. Publishing rights usually stay with publishers and songwriters, with recorded writs belonging to labels and performers. Over the recent years, firms like Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Primary Wave, and Litmus Music (a catalog rights company […]
Law & Order franchise founder Dick Wolf, athletes Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan as well as directors Tyler Perry, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are also named on Forbes’ list.
Swift first reached billionaire status in October 2023, according to a report from Bloomberg at the time. The publication stated that Swift was “one of the few entertainers to reach that status based on music and performing alone, the result of work and talent, but also canny marketing and timing” — which is similar to what Forbes reported on Tuesday.
The Bloomberg report broke down Swift’s earnings, estimating that her musical catalog is worth $400 million. The outlet reported that she’d made an estimated $370 million in concert sales and merchandise, $120 million streaming earnings from Spotify and YouTube and $80 million in royalties from her music sales as of October.