Taylor Swift Net Worth Changing After Buying Masters
Last month, pop sensation Taylor Swift shared the exciting news that she had officially purchased the master recordings for all of her music, spending around $360 million on the deal. As it turns out, that massive deal will have a pretty significant impact on her net worth.
Taylor Swift is already a billionaire with an estimated net worth of around $1.6 billion before she purchased her masters this month. After that purchase, her net worth has only increased.
As several music industry experts explained in a recent article from Newsweek, Taylor Swift's net worth has likely already seen a boost as the recordings are actually worth more while owned by her than they were while owned by anyone else given that she refused to license the original masters for film or TV.
"Ownership of the six masters will undoubtedly improve Taylor's take-home pay," New York University professor Larry Miller, who is also the executive director of the Sony Audio Institute for Music Business and Technology and is the director of the Music Business Program, told Newsweek. "Under Braun's and Shamrock's ownership, Taylor declined requests to license the original masters for film and TV. Now they'll be licensed, and the old, much-loved masters will generate revenue for the rest of her life—and beyond."
"Taylor has a powerful, trusted relationship with hundreds of millions of fans, and she can reignite interest in those six albums in a way that no other artist, company or investor can."
Drew Nobile, an associate professor of Music Theory at the University of Oregon, also believes the masters are worth more in her hands than anyone else's for a different reason: fan loyalty.
Nobile points out that Swifties "might now feel they can freely listen to the older versions, which would further increase those recordings' values."
"So it might be the case that the original recordings are worth more when owned by Swift than they would be in anyone else's hands," he said.
Swift might have paid a reported $360 million for her masters, but it was clear at the time of the sale that this was below market value for the recordings as it was around what Shamrock originally paid for the recordings years ago – which is why Taylor was so thankful to Shamrock in her letter to fans.
Given that the true value of these assets was almost certainly more than the $360 million she reportedly paid, it's very likely that the superstar's net worth increased substantially the second she purchased the recordings, since net worth tallies the value of all assets, not just cash in hand.
Still, the purchase is going to generate a lot of cash in the coming years, as well.
"Swift's music catalog generates over $100 million per year from streaming alone, and of course, that will increase now that Swift owns the rights to her earlier recordings as well. The question is, how long it will take for her to recoup the reported amount of $360 million she paid for those rights," Nobile continued.
"This masters ownership opens up entirely new revenue streams for Taylor," Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of Music Strategy at MIDiA Research, told Newsweek. "She will absolutely see her take-home income increase, although I can't currently speculate by how much."
Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist and professor at Berklee College of Music, echoed similar sentiments.
"Reacquiring the masters will almost certainly increase her income, and may well repay the reported $360 million investment," he said.
While buying back her masters was very much a personal win for Taylor, it's also a great business decision.