Taylor Swift joins billionaire club thanks to music and tour earnings

American singer and global superstar Taylor Swift has become a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine.

The 34-year-old pop musician has accumulated 1.1 billion US dollars (£875 million), based on earnings from her Eras Tour and the worth of her pop music catalogue.

“Swift is the first musician to hit 10-figure status solely based on her songs and performances,” Forbes said.

Barbadian singer Rihanna made the list due to her beauty brand while Beyonce’s husband, the rapper Jay-Z, became hip-hop’s first billionaire in 2019 based on his fine art collection, music and shares in companies and drinks brands.

The business magazine believes Swift’s wealth is made up of roughly 500 million dollars (£398 million) from royalties and touring and a similar amount from the worth of her musical works. An additional 125 million dollars (£99 million) comes from her property portfolio.

She joins French luxury brand LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, who claims the number one spot as the wealthiest person globally with about 233 billion dollars (£185 billion).

Technology mogul Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, came second on the Forbes’ list with an estimated 195 billion dollars (£155 billion).

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos placed third on the list while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took the number four spot and Oracle software cofounder Larry Ellison rounded out the top five.

Following Swift’s recent music gigs, kicking off in March 2023, she became the first artist to surpass one billion dollars (£800 million) in revenue, breaking the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing music tour.

The concert film, based on her tour, also generated Vue International’s highest ticket sales at the UK and Ireland box office on its opening day.

She also became the biggest-selling global recording artist of 2023, which saw her break another record by topping the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) global artist chart for a fourth time.

Her albums, 2022’s Midnights and 2023 re-releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) have all topped the UK charts.

Swift has been trying to regain control of her master recordings by re-recording her back catalogue since 2021 with Fearless (Taylor’s Version).