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Taylor Swift Tops ‘Billboard’ Power 100 List and Reveals ‘Strategic Risks’ That Led to Her Success
Taylor Swift just racked up another massive honor, as she landed in at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Power 100 list, a spot that is usually occupied by music executives and rarely by artists.
With the list, which was released on Tuesday, January 31, the music bible’s editorial director Hannah Karp gave her reasons for giving Taylor, 34, the top position over everyone else in the music industry.
“This year, the mastermind behind most of the industry’s record-breaking achievements — from a historic stadium run that fueled an unprecedented rule atop the Billboard 200 albums chart to the most profitable concert film of all time — was an artist herself. Taylor Swift doesn’t refer to herself publicly as an executive, but she designed and executed one of the most ambitious, innovative and successful business plans the music industry has ever seen.”
Taylor shared the secrets behind her mega-successful 2023. “The piece of advice I would give to the other executives on this list is that the best ideas are usually ones without industry precedent,” she told the publication. “The biggest crossroads moments of my career came down to sticking to my instincts when my ideas were looked at with skepticism. When someone says to me, ‘But that has never been done successfully before,’ it fires me up.”
“We have to take strategic risks every day in this industry, but every once in a while, you have to really trust your gut and take a flying leap. My rerecordings are my favorite example of this, and I’m extremely grateful to my team and fans for taking that leap with me because it absolutely changed my life,” the “Karma” singer concluded.
In 2023, she released “Taylor’s Version” albums for Speak Now and 1989, which not only included new productions of the songs on the original albums, but additional “from the vault” bonus tracks that didn’t make the initial cut.
Taylor began the process in 2021, releasing her versions of Fearless and Red, after arch-enemy Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings purchased the master recordings to her first six albums in June 2019. He later sold them to the financial firm Shamrock Capital in October 2020.
Billboard noted how the rereleases “performed phenomenally well, as she deftly used her tour to promote them. When her latest rerecording (and 14th studio album overall), 1989 (Taylor’s Version), spent its fifth week at atop the Billboard 200 at the end of 2023, Swift beat Elvis Presley’s record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo artist. ”
The Billboard honor comes after Taylor snagged TIME‘s coveted Person of the Year in December 2023. The magazine noted at the time, “Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well. Achieving this feat is something we often chalk up to the alignments of planets and fates, but giving too much credit to the stars ignores her skill and her power.”
2024 promises to be another blockbuster year for the Pennsylvania native, as she embarks on the Asia, Australia and European legs of her Eras tour before bringing it back to the U.S. for additional shows in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis in the fall. Fans are also eagerly awaiting the release of Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the final album she recorded for Big Machine Records before moving to Universal Music Group in 2018.
