She’s a billionaire because she’s a billionaire

So there is a rumor that keeps resurfacing that Taylor Swift is only estimated to be a billionaire because the majority of that is in her masters/discography. And although I get the idea, it’s very reminiscent of the bs rich people will tell you about their stock assets when they don’t want to pay taxes: “it’s not actual cash.” Well, her discography is not like stock, even if it were the only thing padding her net worth.

Correct me if there’s an updated number but I think I last saw that her ownership of her discography was estimated to be worth $400 million? Well it’s been estimated that she’s already profited more than that from her Eras Tour that isn’t even over yet. Now, estimates for this are all over the place and only she knows exactly how much she’s making but people much smarter than me all agree she’s making at least $10 million per show, maybe even $13 (wink wink). That’s at least $600 million. Plus the $100+ million she netted from her movie. Basically she could sell her discography and still be a billionaire (four times over maybe?) just with the checks she received from this tour alone.

So let’s get back to the discography, again, it’s not like stock. It’s valued so highly because it has already generated so much money for her. It’s not like real estate where she could only see its value if she sells it. She has gotten paid hundreds of millions of dollars from her discography already, through royalties and licensing. She has already sold 114 million album units. That would mean her discography has already grossed close to, if not surpassing, a billion dollars in just sales and streams alone. It also generates money from licensing in movies, TV, sheet music, even some merch sales, basically anything that her music or lyrics are in. Now obviously she does not make a billion just from her music, but it’s safe to assume since she was a cowriter or sole writer on her songs and owns the masters to 8 of her 14 albums, she probably took home a decent percentage. So yes, I do think that $400 million is estimating some of what she could still earn from her discography. But she has definitely received big checks for her music alone as well. And when rich people get big checks, they invest that money so they can grow that money. So I think we can all agree that she doesn’t actually have a Chase bank account with a billion dollars ready to spend (I mean, she very well could soon, if she wanted, I just doubt she wants to). But it’s not impossible for her to liquidate her assets when she wants to either. She wouldn’t have to sell the rights to her music in order to get most of her net worth into cash.

She’s a billionaire. I’m sorry.