Is Taylor Swift Disrupting the Publication World With Her Latest Company?

Taylor Swift is a name that is recognized by most people because that’s just how popular she is. Her music is on every radio station (it feels like it is) and she has movies, mentioned by the National Football Association every time she attends a game and now, she has become a disrupter in the publishing industry.

When most celebrities want to release a book, they turn to one of the big publications and let them take care of the distribution element. There is a lot of money in it and very few celebrities would even want to create a publishing company for one book. The logistics are going to be hassle but Taylor Swift is not like every other celebrity.

Swift has realized that she is a global icon and she might be the most popular celebrity on Earth. And that means that there is a lot of money to be made. Swift is a billionaire mostly from making music which is a rare accomplishment. But Swift has made sure to tap into other industries such as making movies. And she made her own visual media production company called Taylor Swift Productions to release her own movie

For most celebrities, this would be too expensive even after keeping more of the profits. But it won’t be profitable in the long run. Swift’s production company was formed in 2008 and received its first credit for the concert filmSpeak Now World Tour – Live in 2011. But in 2018 is when the production company decided to become a powerhouse with the release of Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour.

Swift would be receiving most of the profits from the movie and with her rise in fame, there was a lot more money to be made and Swift and the people around her realized it. This feels like the start because what soon followed were albums by Taylor Swift selling millions of copies. And this year, we saw Swift release dozens of versions of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department. The money-grab was obvious because why else would you have 34 versions of one album?

And now, Swift is continuing to take most of the money on the table with her latest venture Taylor Swift Publications. She released a 256 pages; 500 images and included personal reflections written by Swift herself in her book Taylor Swift Eras Tour commemorative book. Just like her move into making a movie under her own production company, Swift has done the same thing to ensure she keeps most of the profits, getting rid of a middleman.

That is ultimately good business and you can’t fault her. Will other people follow suit because of what she is doing? I doubt it because they aren’t as well of as Swift and she has a lot of products she can offer through various mediums. A good example of someone else doing this is author Brandon Sanderson. His company DragonSteel is a publication company, storefront, and sells other products that Sanderson wants to sell.

But unlike Swift, Sanderson needs to rely on Kickstarter for some of his launches because it isn’t cheap. Most people would lose money but Swift is so big that the demand is always there so she will see a profit.

So, no matter what you see about Taylor Swift is not going to be the end of publication companies. She is an anomaly that is doing what everyone wishes they can do but can’t because they aren’t as big as Taylor Swift. Even among musicians that are billionaires, Swift is unique because her popularity is unmatched and it is a big reason why she is one of one. When many musicians turn to partnering with other powerful companies, Swift has decided that she is more than enough to do it on her own.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook