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Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
In their investment era: Swifties celebrate helping their idol reclaim her music
Tori Cummins cried when she heard that Taylor Swift had bought back the rights to her original albums. The 32-year-old estimated she's spent around $700 on Taylor's Version vinyls and merch, and it was worth every penny. "All I could think of was like, 'oh, I will keep spending money on this woman," Cummins said, adding that she'd had to explain to a non-Swiftie why she felt the pop star's victory was hers, too. "It's so easy to be a fan of hers because at no point do you really feel like you aren't getting just as much as you put in." Last week, Swift announced that she had bought back her original master recordings for a reported $360 million. In a letter announcing the news, Swift cited the support of her fans through the Taylor's Version rerecordings and the Eras Tour as the reason she was able to make the acquisition. "Not to be parasocial or anything, but it is so cool to think about the fact that we did support her all throughout this Taylor's Version journey," Allie Buckman, a 19-year-old Swiftie in Kentucky, said. For Swifties, it's a gratifying end to a yearslong battle. They've been loyally listening to re-recorded "Taylor's Version" songs and abstaining from listening to the "stolen" versions since 2019 to avoid enriching mega-manager Scooter Braun and then Shamrock Holdings, from whom Swift made the purchase last week. It's also another prescient marketing move from the megastar: Fans are joking that their spending on the Eras Tour, which for many was in the hundreds or thousands, functioned as a form of GoFundMe for Swift to make the purchase. Crystal Haryanto, who started a course on Swift at UC Berkeley and is the author of the upcoming book, "The Glory of Giving Everything," on the star's business model, said the letter Swift wrote did more than express gratitude. It "reminds fans that they have equity in the music," though not legally, of course. "From a marketing perspective, presenting this milestone as a joint effort is conducive to sales of future albums," Haryanto said. "Fans are motivated to keep listening to her music because such actions appear to have a measurable impact on Swift's well-being—the dream of any fan toward their favorite person." For Kerry Weber, a 46-year-old Swiftie in marketing who attended the Reputation tour and multiple dates of the Eras Tour, said that Swift made several "genius" marketing moves in the lead-up to the masters acquisition, such as the re-recordings and adding new sets to the tour after the wildly successful concert film was released. Weber said that the sentiment among the "haters" was that Swift milked money from her fans — something she disputes. "I got something in return is how I look at it. I got to go to London with my daughter for the first time, and that was amazing. I don't care, she can have my money just for that alone," Weber, who estimated that she spent a few thousand dollars on a London trip for the Eras Tour, said. "And if that money bought back her masters, I think it's fantastic." Haryanto said that bridging the gap with fans has always been "foundational" to Swift's branding strategy. She described it as akin to attracting repeat customers in retail — it curates customers who not only come back, but get even more satisfaction from supporting the brand as a whole. "To know that the money I spent at a concert was going to something like this and was going to this project that I think will hopefully also change things for other artists and younger artists in the future — it's a really gratifying moment," Larissa Miles, a 26-year-old Swiftie in Minnesota, said. Bridget Doyle, a 30-year-old Swiftie in Boston who previously told BI she spent $1,500 on attending the Eras Tour, said that the masters move feels like a return on investment of 20 years of being a fan. "If anything, I think it's going to make fans want to spend more because I think fans get more of a direct, like I'm investing in you making this art in order to encourage you to continue making more art that we all enjoy and love," Doyle said. The move from Swift coincides with a larger conversation over intentional spending. Americans are participating in "Tesla Takedowns" over Elon Musk's political involvement and boycotting Target over the department store's DEI retreat. While Swift's music might not seem as pressing an issue, Swifties said that they like seeing their investments serve what they see as a great purpose. "It goes to show you that boycotting and supporting causes that matter to you make a difference," Brittany Michalski, a 36-year-old Swiftie, said. "What we do matters. And even if it's so a pop star can own her music, it's going to make a difference in the music industry for people who aren't as powerful as her."
USA Today
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Taylor Swift brings a billion dollars of publicity to NFL, according to marketing firm
Taylor Swift brings a billion dollars of publicity to NFL, according to marketing firm Taylor Swift may not be on the NFL payroll or have official football merchandise, but the singer is responsible for bringing a billion dollars' worth of publicity to the sport, according to Apex Marketing. The official number is $992,361,912. Apex Marketing — a 10-year-old firm that provides sponsorship and brand analytics for entertainment and sports venue owners and commercial brands — calculated the billion dollar value by tracking how much Swift was mentioned in the same breath as the NFL. That includes in newspapers, radio stations, television broadcasts and social media posts. "This is just media buzz," says Eric Smallwood, president of Apex. "If you were a brand and you wanted to go and buy media for your product or service, you would have to spend this amount to garner this level of media exposure." Apex studied the media's spotlight on the singer starting with her game day debut on Sept. 24, 2023, when she shocked fans by cheering from an Arrowhead Stadium suite. Special section about Taylor & Travis! "At the time, her concert tour was constantly in the news," Smallwood says. "When she crossed into the world of the NFL and football, a non-Swiftie environment, it cross-pollinated these two entities of sports and entertainment." The timing of the Eras Tour amplified Swift's already blinding media exposure. Articles on whether she would make the trek from her Tokyo concert to the Super Bowl in 2024 saw traffic spikes. Following that game, the superstar brought her record-shattering concert, sometimes with boyfriend in tow, to stops in Asia, Australia and Europe. At every city, handfuls of her concertgoers sported Chiefs merchandise, especially Travis Kelce jerseys. "And it just blows up from there," Smallwood says. "An entity reached out to our company and said, 'What's the value from this period of time?'" His company followed the "Love Story" through this February, with interest heightening around whether Swift would attend the Super Bowl matchup between the Chiefs and Eagles. She did, and the NFL showed her on the broadcast for 10 seconds, exciting Swifties tuned into the broadcast globally and inciting Eagles fans to boo her. Either way, the singer was a topic of conversation in the days following the big game. The Taylor Swift effect? NFL says women make up almost half of audience. "The booing became a discussion that kept the conversation going," Smallwood says. "We've been following the media every day and not just domestically, but internationally. With her, we're seeing a lot of international interest." Media articles may have waned in the past two weeks, but interest lingers as fans wait to see whether Kelce will return to the NFL next year. Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the free, weekly newsletter This Swift Beat. Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
