America, Please Stop With The Taylor Swift Obsession. You’re focusing on the wrong things.
My headline says it all. But let me elaborate.
Recently, I’ve been overwhelmed and exhausted by the onslaught of news of Taylor and Travis. I say this as a well- intentioned millennial who is seeing if its worth her time to become a Swiftie.
It may be but for different reasons than you think. Swift is an intuitive song-writer and a reasonably strong vocalist.
What she’s not is arrogant, unreachable or unattainable despite her billionaire status and that puts her in a separate league of celebrityhood.
But in my opinion, here’s really why you should be her fan.
Lesson 1: she knows how to re-invent yourself.
Rather, she grabbed a perceived challenge by its horns and turned it around into an opportunity. Swift was outraged and distraught to learn that Scooter Braun had sold her entire music catalog (upto 2017) to a private equity investment firm without speaking or consulting her as the original creator of the material.
Masters are important because they earn revenue through multiple streams such as television, award shows commercials, basically everywhere. Braun had basically incapacitated her to profit in any way shape or form from her art. Swift struck back to re-record her entire music collection from 2007–2017.
This was a canny move because she directed all her followers to the new re-recordings rather than the originals.
This also means the company buying the master rights needs to get permission from the song’s publisher to license the originals for commercial uses going forward. Smart.
In the process, Swift started a deeper conversation around an artists’ right of first refusal for whom their music should go to and who their art belongs to.
She was seen as fighting the good fight for artists across all artistic mediums. Don’t miss the deeper story here. Her actions stemmed from genuine outrage and added legitimacy to the perception that she’s fighting for her convictions.
Braun sold it for $140mln but Swift’s re-recordings are worth more than 2.5 times that. She wasn’t afraid to put in the hard-work to re-record all her songs from 2007–2017 and start all over again. Recognize when you need to.
The bulk of her net-worth comes from her catalog.
Lesson 2: Don’t invest in things you don’t understand. If you want to invest in it, understand it.
Fame as usual eclipses the shit that’s actually important. Swift’s financial acumen. What do you remember about FTX and Nft’s? Tom Brady. Gisele Bundchen.
They hopped onto the FTX bandwagon and Brady earned himself a nice $55mln payday for commercials promoting crypto. Only problem? He didn’t do his due diligence.
Taylor swift did. She was offered a $100mln to do promotional work but instead of her 1st question being “When can I start”, it was “Are you selling unregistered securities?” Turns out they were.
What does Swift invest in? Some good old fashioned mutual funds. “Taylor Swift showcased her financial acumen when she avoided a $100 million sponsorship deal with FTX, the now-bankrupt crypto exchange.
The pop superstar puts her money in a niche type of mutual fund, an elite investor has revealed.
Discounted closed end funds are a type of mutual fund whose price trades at a discount to its nav. This can be for many reasons, such as underperformance, irregular distributions etc. One must certainly do their due diligence into such funds but these are by far a much safer bet than the volatile crypto markets of today.
Its no secret that Swift probably gets her financial acumen from her dad who was an ex Merril-Lynch employee which leads me to my next and final point.
Surround yourself with good people. And keep them around.
And I mean the genuinely good people. The people who will hold a mirror to your face and show you who you are and what you are becoming. These are likely to be your family members and friends who’ve known you through thick and thin.
This advice is not going to be shockingly new but its becoming increasingly hard for people to understand and value what is genuine and what isn’t.
The more successful you become, the harder it is to find discern such people and keep them. Our search for a good time can lead us to transient friendships and relationships for the wrong reasons. This isn’t new advice nor is it fashionable but its worth remembering.
Swift counts as part of her team her parents and a very close and tight knit group of well-wishers, as she should.
While Swift’s latest relationship is all the rage and her songs are catchy and poignant in turns, don’t shake off the common sensical guardrails that you should have in place to keep your head firms on your shoulders even as you gaze upwards to the midnight stars.
