It’s already the year of Taylor Swift (again).
The 34-year-old singer took over the No. 1 spot on the 2024 Billboard Power 100 list, which was announced on Wednesday, January 31. Billboard’s annual list is a definitive ranking of the most powerful players in the music industry. Generally, “music industry executives and power players” grace the list and Swift’s No. 1 ranking marks only the second time that a musician has been graced with the top spot. (Beyoncé and Jay-Z were No.1 in 2014.)
Upon learning about her win, Swift offered advice to other music industry changemakers.
“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,” Swift told Billboard. “The biggest crossroads moments of my career came down to sticking to my instincts when my ideas were looked at with skepticism.”
Swift went on to say that she learned to take “strategic risks” throughout her career.
“When someone says to me, ‘But that has never been done successfully before,’ it fires me up,” she continued. “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.”
Music manager Scooter Braun acquired Swift’s former record label, Big Machine Records, in 2019. In doing so, he gained the rights to her music. (Brawn and Swift have a deep-rooted history that dates back to 2016.)
After owning her masters for a little over a year, Braun sold the rights to Swift’s music to Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million in 2020. At the time, Swift claimed that the sale had occurred without her knowledge. In order to combat the sale, Swift revealed her plans to rerecord her first six albums — Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.
The first rerecording, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), was released in April 2021. Along with new versions of the original songs, Swift released “From the Vault” tracks, which were songs she had written at the time but never saw the light of day. She’s since followed up with three other rereleases — Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July 2023 and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October 2023 — and they have all found major success on the Billboard charts.
When she was named the TIME Person of the Year in December 2023, Swift hinted at the keys to her success over the years.
“My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art,” she said at the time. “But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote-unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”
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