Taylor Swift’s success across more than two decades in the music industry reflects not only her work ethic, but remarkable career management skills. Forbes estimated in 2024 that she had become the world’s richest musician, with a $1.6 billion net worth. Now, with her twelfth studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” set to release on October 3, her physical products, including vinyls and cardigans, are in such high demand that some fans wait for hours in the (remote) pre-order queues.
Swift’s sustained success can be credited to her relationship with fans. “Swifties” feel as though they grew up with the star, and the relationship has been strengthened through Swift’s ability to seemingly communicate directly with her base. She offers her fans early access to products and tickets, having rejected dynamic pricing for her Eras tour in an attempt to keep tickets affordable, and has offered unique opportunities to fans to engage directly with the artist, through social media and events like the opening of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film where she invited over 2,000 fans to attend.
Her evolution as an entrepreneur and artist contains several lessons that can help leaders in any business sector.
1. Be Open To Different Paths To Reaching Your Goals
Early in her life, Swift looked to pursue theater before shifting to music, traveling with her mother to Nashville at age 11 to hand out a demo of cover songs to record labels. After facing rejection, she learned guitar and was assisted by a local musician to write an original song. While working with a talent manager, Swift modeled and had her music included in a compilation album distributed by a makeup company before signing a development deal with RCA records at 13. She signed a publishing contract with Sony at 14, leaving RCA soon after they decided to keep her in development until she was 18. After a showcase at Bluebird Cafe, she was signed to a newly established record label in the summer of 2005, releasing her eponymous album less than a year later.
Swift and her parents never resigned themselves to just one path to ensure she would be noticed and have the opportunity to reach her goals. Leaders can often get stuck following one approach as they strategize how to guide others toward success. Thinking outside the box and exploring different tracks to you or your organization’s ultimate goals, while encouraging and supporting your team’s ability to change direction without undermining or impacting the end goals. This will help avoid failure, mitigate damage if you face obstacles or dead ends, and encourage the development of new skills.
2. Use Conflict As A Catalyst for Growth
In 2016, Swift was involved in a controversy with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian over whether she gave permission to have her name invoked in the single, “Famous.” West and Swift’s contentious relationship dates back to the 2009 Video Music Awards, when West interrupted a then 19-year old Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. Conflict also arose when fellow pop star Katy Perry was accused of hiring Swift’s backup dancers in 2014, leading to a feud that spanned several years. These feuds inspired Swift’s album “Reputation,” a platinum album that led to a Stadium Tour, the highest grossing concert tour in U.S. history at the time.
Conflict is unavoidable within your organization, with competitors, and even with clients. If you face conflict within your team, including the loss of employees, use it to reevaluate how you manage relationships, contention between team members and how you lead your team. Conflict with competitors can be an opportunity to examine the market and recalibrate strategies for success. Conflict with clients can invite introspection about how you serve and communicate with those you are serving to better meet their expectations and needs.
3. Turn Challenges Into Opportunities
In 2018, Swift left Big Machine Records to sign with Republic Records, setting off a dispute over her masters, a dispute which intensified when Scooter Braun, backed by private equity firms, bought her former record label. Swift attempted to buy her masters. But, after negotiations broke down, Braun sold the masters to Shamrock Holdings, agreeing to sell as long as he continued to profit from the music. The private equity first offered a partnership. However,t Swift declined, instead deciding to re-record the music to regain ownership of the music. Radio stations, including those overseen by iHeartRadio, the largest radio network in the U.S., agreed to replace the original recordings with “Taylor’s Version” in broadcast. Swift earned more than $8.5 per month in 2023, KOAA News estimated, from Spotify streaming of her re-recorded songs. Plus, these versions helped inspire The Eras Tour, which went on to be the highest grossing global concert tour of all time.
Setbacks like losing clients or market share may be frustrating, but can also offer opportunities to better position yourself for even greater success. It is easy to become complacent when your organization is doing well, and can be unsettling when that sustained success is suddenly interrupted, particularly by a competitor. Although it may cause some disruption and growing pain, it can offer an opportunity to evolve and find even greater success by addressing this challenge and allow you to better position you and your team for future growth and protect yourself against similar disruptions in the future.
4. Reward Loyalty
Swift builds hype with her fans by offering hints or ‘Easter eggs’ regarding upcoming projects and announcements. In addition to her above-mentioned loyalty programs for fans, Swift also invests in rewarding loyal staff. For example, she provided her tour staff with $137 million in bonuses, People reported, to show appreciation for their support for the historically successful tour. This loyalty has helped Swift navigate challenges to her career while helping Swift’s socioeconomic impact grow over the last two decades, which is reflected in the early numbers for her upcoming album and concert film with 5 million Spotify presaves, over $15 million in theater ticket presales for the companion movie, and fan events around the country.
Rewarding the loyalty of employees, stakeholders, and clients can encourage long term success and growth. High turnover can disrupt operations, demoralize team members, and destabilize cooperation within your organization. Showing employees that they are valued by rewarding their success will strengthen their connection with the organization while communicating your appreciation for their work. Similarly for stakeholders, exhibiting stability while recognizing how their support and interest is integral to your firm’s success can keep them engaged and continue to invest in continued growth. Clients can be fickle and if they do not feel as though their business or relationship with your organization is appreciated they may go elsewhere. It is much harder to attract new clients than it is to retain current ones, so a small investment in maintaining strong relationships with clients can help avoid larger costs in attracting new ones later.
5. Embrace Change While Knowing Your Worth
Throughout her career, Swift has been able to adjust to changes in the industry, embracing new genres and recalibrating as the music industry quickly evolved from albums to digital sales and streaming. Swift felt the royalties from free streaming sites like Spotify were too low and, with the support of her record label, temporarily pulled her music from the service in 2014 to help convince Apple Music to pay royalties to artists during free trial periods for customers. Swift also helped buoy declining album sales across the industry by offering special editions of her albums and embraced new media formats to maintain her visibility. She’s become known from profiting off of multiple versions of the same product, cardigans in different colors for unique albums, re-recorded versions, vinyl albums with bonus tracks, etc.
The most successful leaders do not fight change in their industry, rather they ensure their team is able to adapt and lean into progress. Adjusting to changes does not mean you undervalue your product or services when you are presented with technological or market shifts. Instead encourage your team to shift strategy to best address these changes while avoiding undercutting yourself in a panic to not be left behind in an evolving industry or market.