Every time Taylor Swift bakes some cookies, or goes to the gym, or shares a photo of herself and her cat, dozens of writers spill thousands of words and generate millions of pageviews.
Similarly, every time a U.K. tabloid breathlessly publishes anything about how much money Taylor Swift is making (or Madonna, or Led Zeppelin, or Bono), the same thing happens--regardless of whether or not it's true. Over the weekend, the Sunday
The Daily Mail quickly echoed that sentiment, as did MSN, and the claim was then cited by a number of other outlets included Business Insider. The latter blared that Swift "is on pace to make $365 million this year." If that sounds a little outrageous, it's because it is.
Taylor Swift is having a phenomenal year in the midst of becoming arguably the biggest pop star in the world--part of the reason she's been a mainstay on FORBES lists like the Celeb 100, earning $80 million on this year's edition. But she will not earn $365 million this year. Her final figure will likely land somewhere around one third of that sum, which will still probably be enough to make her music's top earner.
Swift is in the midst of a massive world tour that's grossing roughly $4 million per show. Since the beginning of the year, she's played 53 concerts and has 17 more planned through the end of December. That amounts to about $280 million in gross ticket sales. Could Swift potentially pick up another $75 million on merch, music, publishing and endorsements? Perhaps in a very extreme best-case scenario. But Robert Downey, Jr. doesn't earn $1.5 billion if the latest Iron Man movie grosses $1.5 billion, and the same holds true for Swift (and her peers) when it comes to touring.
When calculating annual income figures, publications like FORBES and Billboard give acts roughly one third of their gross ticket sales, setting aside the rest to account for an international tour's mind-boggling costs: dozens of tractor-trailers needed to schlep elaborate sets across continents, transportation and lodging for dancers and road musicians, and pricey load-ins and load-outs, to name a few.
Swift's actual earnings total for the year will almost certainly be north of $100 million--but not $200 million, and certainly not $300 million. So how did so many publications get this story so wrong? By conflating gross tickets sales with income, and by regurgitating an endless stream of second-hand information without asking questions or consulting reliable industry figures.
With all that said, all the publications mentioned above should be able to agree on one thing: that Swift is set to deliver the best financial performance of her career, and has perhaps the brightest financial future of any entertainer in the world ahead of her. In covering Swift, though, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
For more about the business of music, check out my Jay Z biography, Empire State of Mind, and my other book, Michael Jackson, Inc. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
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