Taylor Swift is richest female musician

Sparks are flying for Taylor Swift, who now bears a new title up her sleeve — the world’s richest female musician.

With a net worth of $1.6 billion as of 8 October, the singer-songwriter has officially dethroned Rihanna ($1.4 billion) as the world’s top-earning female artist, according to Forbes magazine.

Currently grossing over $2 billion in total revenue since its run on 17 March 2023, the Eras Tour is projected to gross $4.6 billion in consumer spending by the end of the year–but only in the US.

Due to its extensive schedule and availability spread across 50 states, the tour has helped local economies thrive through ancillary expenses by concert-goes on food, accommodation, and transport, which generates around $300 for every $100 that is shelled out by the average attendee, according to Time.

Concertgoers also reportedly drop between $1300 to $1500 on various purchases such as costumes and outfits and merchandise, pumping local businesses’ profits to hundreds of millions of dollars in a single weekend, comparable to a Super Bowl game.

Forbes reports that Swift’s wealth includes about $600 million from royalties and performances, another $600 million estimated from her music catalog, and $125 million from properties in real estate.

Rihanna, on the other hand, makes big bucks primarily from her Fenty Beauty cosmetic line that she launched in 2017 in partnership with luxury conglomerate LVMH, and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty.

Swift also made history as the first musician to have reached the billion dollar mark just with earnings from her blockbuster Eras Tour and a vast music catalogue comprising 274 tracks.

On top of her tour sales, the singer-songwriter has scored more than $261 million from her Eras Tour film, which was released in October of the previous year and is screened in 8,500 theaters worldwide.

The Miss Americana’s roster of four re-recorded albums–Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989 — saw monumental success in profits, generating a combined total of 4.8 million units sold.

Of the four, 1989 performed the best commercially with 2,225,000 copies sold as of January this year, and has accumulated one billion streams on Spotify this year.

Swift earned her billionaire status back in December 2023 after closing 60 shows estimated to have raked in $1.39 billion in North America alone.

The singer’s Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour ever and the fastest to generate a billion dollars in total revenue.

Coming second is Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour, amassing $1.059 billion from 164 shows performed, which first commenced on 18 March 2024 and expected to wrap up on 8 September 2025.

Taylor Swift is set to throw 149 shows for the Eras Tour, with the finale to be held in Vancouver, Canada on 8 December 2024.

The show is a three-hour long performance covered by 44 to 46 songs in its entirety and divided into 10 acts based on the same number of her studio albums resembling the “eras” of the love song maven’s discography, beginning with Lover and closing with Midnights.

From May 2024 onwards, Swift added her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, to the tour lineup, in between 1989 and the acoustic set preceding Midnights.