Taylor Swift Capitalism: How Everything She Touches Turns Into Cash

2023 is the year of Taylor Swift. 

It almost seems like no matter what Swift does, money will follow. This phenomenon should have its own name: Taylor Swift Capitalism. 

Let’s take a deeper look into how everything Swift touches brings in cash. 

Swift’s Re-Recordings 

The catalyst for Taylor Swift’s current success was Swift’s re-recordings.  

As almost everyone knows, Swift’s masters got sold without her getting the chance to buy them. So she announced that she would be re-recording all of her old albums.

With the success of the release of Fearless Taylor’s Version, Swift decided to take a different approach with her other re-recordings. 

Red Taylor’s Version was a defining moment for Taylor Swift Capitalism. There was a lot of hype building up to the release of this album, unlike Fearless Taylor’s Version.

Swift was hyping up “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, and fans were excited. 

Not only that, but Taylor Swift Capitalism was in full force to promote this album. From Starbucks releasing a drink named after Swift, called Taylor’s Latte, to brands like Sour Patch Kids openly hating on Jake Gyllenhaal and everyone rushing to have their Instagram captions have Red Taylor’s Version lyrics, you couldn’t escape the mania.

This was the beginning of brands knowing the cash that was up for grabs by using Taylor Swift’s name. 

Taylor Swift began being active on TikTok as well. This boosted her brand and her name before the album was released. Swift was able to participate in trends using her songs before and during Red Taylor’s Version release.

She could also interact with her fans and help build a stronger sense of community. This is vital in the Taylor Swift Capitalism phenomenon. 

By having such a strong knit community with her fans, Taylor Swift has also given herself people who will buy anything she releases. Swifties feel close to Taylor, and because of this they feel loyal to her as well.

The best way to remain loyal is by buying merchandise from her. 

Vinyl Variants Galore

This leads directly into how Taylor Swift has taken over the vinyl industry. 

Taylor Swift Capitalism has overtaken another aspect of the music industry: vinyls. It seems now that almost every artist, from Olivia Rodrigo to Harry Styles, releases an album and with it comes the multiple variants for the album vinyl.

There is a clear winner in this department, with Taylor Swift selling 1 vinyl for every 25 sold in 2022. 

This is a result from the vinyl variants that began with Taylor Swift’s folklore. This album introduced Swift’s love of having multiple variants for every new album that she released.

This album had 9 different versions. The loyal Swifties quickly got behind the idea of trying to collect every single version. This played right into the Taylor Swift Capitalism that we know today. 

Swift would continue to do this for every album she released after folklore. Swifties continued to buy all the variants that were released. For her eleventh studio album, Midnights, Swift played into how much her fans love having every variant.

So before the album’s release, she announced how the four vinyls come together to form a clock. 

This inspired fans to purchase one of each variant, and have a complete clock to put on display. To add to the mania, when the Midnights vinyls were first announced, they were only available for 72 hours.

This caused a mad rush to make sure everyone was able to complete their collection. This is what Taylor Swift Capitalism looks like. 

Merch, Merch, & More Merch

Taylor Swift is constantly putting out new merchandise. She offers a variety for her fans to choose from. But Swift pushes out her merch differently than other artists. Like with the Midnights merch, there is a time limit to how long the merch is available. 

This creates a sense of urgency in needing to buy merchandise quickly. Most of the time, Swift does restock the merch at a later date. But it’s never for sure, and this unknown factor causes an increase in demand. 

There has also been an unprecedented demand for Taylor Swift’s tour merch as well. 

Fans will line up hours before a show just for a chance to get the coveted blue crewneck. This level of demand for simply an artist’s tour merch has not been seen in decades. Taylor Swift Capitalism is the reason for this perfect storm that is brewing. 

In fact, it’s reported that Taylor Swift is increasing Universal Music’s merchandising revenue by 12%, or over $173 million. It’s hard to deny the impact Taylor Swift is having on businesses and even local economies. 

Boosting Cities Economies 

Taylor Swift also has government officials begging for her to come visit their state or country. They understand the power that Swift has to the local economy when she tours.

It’s no secret that tourism in cities has not been the same post-Covid. So, it makes sense for cities to want to benefit from Taylor Swift Capitalism as well. 

The Eras Tour is the event of the year, with Swifties flying in from all over the country to see Taylor Swift. Because of this, hotel bookings have increased significantly. Local restaurants and businesses have also benefited from the tour as well. 

Taylor Swift Capitalism has gone outside of just Swifties and directly benefiting Swift herself. Now, for every city that she visits, the average spending in local economies is on par with the Super Bowl. It’s obvious to see that where Taylor Swift goes, the money will come falling in right behind her. 

Jersey Sales & Seemingly Ranch

Taylor Swift Capitalism reached a new peak when Swift showed up to a Kansas City Chiefs game on September 24th in the middle of dating rumors with Chiefs tight-end, Travis Kelce.  The whole internet erupted when she was confirmed to be there. 

In fact, viewership for the following week’s “Sunday Night Football” game became the NFL’s second most watched game of the season. The game had a peak of over 29 million viewers, with most of the viewership increase being from girls between 12-17. 

After Taylor Swift’s first game appearance, Travis Kelce got to benefit from Taylor Swift Capitalism. Kelce gained over 300,000 Instagram followers during the following 24 hours, and also saw an insane increase in jersey sales, reaching a 400% increase.

People were buying and watching things that weren’t even directly related to Swift anymore. Just a mere mention of her name was enough.

This was shown with brands quickly hopping on the internet craze that day with the ‘seemingly ranch’ comment that was made by Twitter/X user @tswifterastour. The tweet went viral, and companies wanted to get in on the fun. 

Taylor Swift’s name is enough for brands to create whole posts about the ‘seemingly ranch’ tweet without using her name.

They understand the power of Taylor Swift Capitalism. From Heinz creating limited-edition bottles of ketchup and seemingly ranch, to the Empire State Building lighting up in red and white colors, Swift’s name is gold to these brands.

To End Swiftly

Taylor Swift Capitalism is a phenomenon that is very unique. It seems that no matter what Taylor Swift does, brands and fans will follow. For the foreseeable future, Swift will bring cash to everything she touches. 

✍️ Written by Hayley Shepard