Taylor Swift has had a major impact on the music industry since she first burst onto the scene 17 years ago. While her commercial success is undeniable, her influence extends far beyond just record sales. She has been a vocal advocate for artists’ rights, and has challenged traditional album release models. Additionally, Swift has helped change the conversation around song rights and ownership. She is known for her unique style, savvy marketing skills, and ability to break records both in terms of album sales and touring. In recent years, she has even released remakes of her old albums, further showcasing her enduring popularity.
It’s not everyday that someone rises to the top of the music industry like Swift has, and it’s even more uncommon for them to have such a significant impact on the business. From the moment she released her first album at just 16 years old, Swift demonstrated an innate ability to connect with her fans. Her followers eagerly anticipate each new song, album release, and merchandise drop with a sense of excitement that can be all-consuming. In fact, their enthusiasm has been known to crash Ticketmaster’s website, and even caught the attention of the Senate Judiciary.
Taylor Swift has wielded her considerable power to transform multiple facets of the music industry during her time in the spotlight. From driving a resurgence in vinyl to revolutionizing the ticket-selling process, she’s been a force for change. Furthermore, she’s navigated shifts in her musical style with finesse, attracting a broad range of fans while remaining connected to her core audience. Here are eight ways in which Taylor Swift has left an indelible mark on the music business. One of her most significant contributions is her advocacy for artists’ rights.
Taylor Swift’s music was absent from Spotify for almost three years in the 2010s, following her decision to pull her catalog from the streaming service due to its low royalty payouts. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Swift had expressed her opinion that music should not be free and that valuable things should be paid for. Swift flexed her industry power again in 2015 when she threatened to withhold her album 1989 from Apple Music over its decision not to pay artists during the streamer’s free trial period. Apple changed its policy one day later and agreed to pay royalties. In 2019, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings purchased the master recordings for Swift’s first six albums, prompting her to announce plans to re-record these songs in order to gain ownership of the masters. Despite the risks of time and money involved, this move paid off as her fans supported her new versions. All three of her re-releases, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) have debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Swift found a way to dominate across consumption metrics by placing a premium on streaming her new material early and often, encouraging extra listens through surprise drops, and emphasizing her albums as art objects and collector’s items to spur physical sales, especially vinyl. Her latest album, Midnights, achieved the third-largest-ever streaming week for an album with its 549.26 million on-demand U.S. official streams in its debut frame. It also sold 1.14 million copies, including a record 575,000 on vinyl.
Taylor Swift has a unique approach to album sales, with her fans often purchasing multiple copies of the same album due to different-colored LP variants and packaging that includes easter eggs and bonus materials. She is the only contemporary artist who can both stream and sell as well as Drake and Adele, making her the exemplar for commercial success in the music industry today.
Swift was one of the first artists to break down the wall between themselves and their fans, using social media not just as a messaging tool but also as a direct communication channel. She extends this intimacy to real-life situations by holding personalized meet-and-greets, secret listening parties, and even inviting fans into her house for baking and dancing. Her mastery of engagement includes surprising fans with unexpected new music and organizing contests to allow fans to engage directly with promotional campaigns. Swift’s devotion to her fans has changed the way artists prioritize fan engagement, laying the groundwork for other acts to build meaningful connections with their own supporters.
Swift’s dominance in the touring industry goes back over a decade, with her Fearless tour earning $66 million in ticket sales and drawing 1.2 million fans across the United States, UK, and Australia. She has headlined her own stadium show since the age of 21 and has returned to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, for a record 13 concerts on her Eras Tour in May 2023. She crossed the $100 million mark with her Speak Now Tour and generated $150 million with the help of promoter Louis Messina from the Messina Touring Group and $250 million in sales for her 2014-2015 1989 World Tour.
Swift’s success also drew the attention of scalpers who bought affordable tickets meant for fans and sold them on the secondary market. For her Reputation Tour in 2017, Swift piloted a new technology developed by Ticketmaster to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers, prompting major ticketing reforms in the music industry.
Taylor Swift has become a central figure in the concert industry’s efforts to combat scalping, thanks to her popularity among both fans and scalpers. Long before the Eras Tour ticket presale crash, she worked with Ticketmaster to minimize scalping, partnering with their Verified Fan program to create SwiftTix for her Reputation Tour. Taylor also employs dynamic pricing and has made it standard practice for high-demand tours to require advance registration for ticket sales. Additionally, Taylor’s music has evolved from pop-leaning country to full-bore pop, and even indie folk/rock on her latest albums, Folklore and Evermore, broadening her fanbase to include more alternative-minded listeners. She has proven herself to be an elite marketer, constantly reinventing her style, persona, and storytelling to fit the story she wants to tell at that point in time. With her Taylor’s Version series of re-recordings, she has successfully re-marketed her own career to a new generation of fans while deepening her connection with long-term supporters.
