Taylor Swift’s Successful Business

Taylor Swift makes her professional money in the entertainment industry thanks to her unique tactics of human resources, marketing, customer building, and continuous innovation.

At the age of 33, the pop star Taylor Swift is one of the most influential entertainment entrepreneurs in the world, according to the WSJ.

She took control of the rights to her songs instead of the labels, ready to go head-to-head with the giants, such as the war with Spotify and selling a record number of albums. She maintains the loyalty of her fans by chatting with them online.

Taylor Swift’s tours are so attractive that the Ticketmaster online ticketing system is overloaded, crashing the website. Present”Eras Tour” is predicted to be the biggest tour of all time with the potential to gross more than a billion dollars.

While other stars like Rihanna are actively making money in many other fields, Taylor Swift focuses on the entertainment industry. Here are some management lessons learned by the WSJ from Swift’s stumbles and successes.

Lean team

While many artists in the music industry give their business to outsiders, Swift still prefers to run it directly. Her company 13 Management has a lean staff. The business is supported by close people from family to some soul mates.

She often avoids hiring outside managers, brokers, and lawyers to save on operating costs. Meanwhile, the corporate office is packed into her private hangar in Nashville, Tennessee.

Going from basic to complex

At the age of 11, while her mother and brother waited in the car, Swift knocked on the doors of each record label in Nashville to invite them to listen to CDs of her karaoke songs. When that didn’t pique interest, Swift bought a 12-string guitar and practiced for hours every day.

Along with that, she began to practice composing. Two years later, her original songs helped reach a development deal with RCA Records.

Seizing opportunities

Prior to the release of an album, unsung country artists often performed on about 200 radio stations across the United States because their reviews contributed to their inclusion in the charts. If one of their songs receives support, it will continue to be broadcast several times and climb the charts, prompting the record label to decide to release the rest of the album.

Rick Barker, who took Swift on the first leg of a radio tour in 2006 and later became her manager, said the arduous journey could be demoralizing and affect many artists.

During a visit to K-FROG radio station in Riverside, California, Barker was reminded not to bother busy program directors about asking Swift to go on air.

However, while playing “Tim McGraw” in the station’s studio, when it comes to the phrase “one day you’re going to turn on your radio”, Swift glances at Barker and changes the content to “one day you’re going to turn on K-FROG”. This quick-wittedness of hers worked, and the station immediately wanted to introduce Swift to the audience.

Build and mobilize your audience

Swift soon built up her online fan base, first on Myspace, then on Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. The platforms allow her to get music to her favorite listeners faster than radio. “When she sees people on Myspace, she sees it as a performance venue. She plays music for thousands of fans every night,” Barker said.

During a break from advertising at K-FROG, Swift informed fans on Myspace that she would be on the station. The station’s phone line was then flooded with thank-you calls that played Swift’s song.

Swift’s pioneering use of social media is now considered key to the artist’s relationship with consumers. “The way she uses technology to create authentic connections with fans has shaped the modern music industry in many ways,” commented Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, Swift’s record label and publisher.

Taking care of partners

CEOs, radio program directors and other business partners describe Swift’s keen memory with details about their spouses and children. They say they still keep her handwritten thank-you cards.

Some people close to Swift said she or a team member would save important information about the partner for Swift and everyone else to review before they meet again next time.

Tom Poleman, the Broadcast Director of iHeartMedia, described that Swift knew where everyone she met had stopped in the last conversation. “To do it at such a young age is respectable — to engage in building relationships not only with listeners, but also with business partners,” he said.

Keep yourself fresh

An important part of Taylor Swif’s long-term strength is self-renewal, according to music executives. Rod Essig, Swift’s representative in the early years, said that no two recordings are the same, and the performances are never the same. “People are very excited about it,” he said.

When Swift decided to release her first authentic pop album, she invited them to “Secret Sessions,” which were held at her various homes, where she played unreleased songs from the album “1989.” This album took Swift to new heights in terms of sales and fame.

Create leverage for yourself

When sales skyrocketed a few weeks after the release of “1989” in 2014, Swift pulled the entire songs from the Spotify music platform. She fought the giant, demanding that Spotify only offer “1989” to paid listeners.

“Things of value should be paid,” she wrote in an editorial for the WSJ. “In my opinion, music shouldn’t be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will one day determine the price of an album,” she said.

To fix the relationship, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek flew to Nashville several times to talk to Swift. But it wasn’t until three years later, before the release of the album “Reputation”, that she agreed to re-release the songs on Spotify. By that time, “1989” had sold 10 million copies worldwide. The avoidance of free releases helped drive this sales.

“I don’t think Spotify did anything to convince Taylor. She is very independent and decides many things on her own,” Ek commented. Realizing that there was a huge audience on Spotify, Swift didn’t release the album “Reputation” on online services in the first 3 weeks of its launch to maximize sales. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 41% more copies than the other 199 albums combined.

Breaking precedent

In 2018, Swift signed a deal with Universal that allowed her to own any music she recorded. But her first six albums were still under the independent label Big Machine. Despite many attempts, she still couldn’t buy back their copyrights. So she decided to re-release the new version to get her own copyright.

And as a result, no artist has ever done it as successfully as her with this method. Swift added unreleased songs to the albums and encouraged fans to purchase the new version.

She mobilized fans to participate, explaining why ownership is important. Streaming services and radio stations also support and replace old versions of albums copyrighted by Big Machine with new versions copyrighted by Swift. According to an analysis by the WSJ, new versions of albums such as “Fearless” and “Red” even outperformed their old counterparts by a ratio of 3 to 1.