• Darkard@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    It’s it odd how the media picks and chooses who to call out on making “too much” money.

    She must be the wrong type of millionaire or something

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      21 days ago

      She must be the wrong type of millionaire or something

      She isn’t one at all, she’s a billionaire, and she’s definitely not a fucking victim.

      If anything, it’s her fellow billionaires not getting enough shit, not her getting too much.

      • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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        21 days ago

        She is a paper billionaire. She is worth all that money if she sells the rights to all her songs, which she just remade to reclaim her rights to those songs, so she isn’t interested in selling.

        She might be worth a lot, but she doesn’t have thatmuch because autonomy is worth more to her than money.

        She’s not hurting, that’s for sure, but she doesn’t have money like people say.

        • Orvorn@slrpnk.net
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          21 days ago

          Every billionaire is a paper billionaire. Like the others, she can borrow against the value of her assets.

        • glimse@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          Even if she did have the cash, she’s an artist who makes things that people love. You don’t need her art to live like you do healthcare and food so as much as I hate billionaires, she’s not anywhere near the same level of bad

          • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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            21 days ago

            And you, like, see her recording new albums and performing it live on tours, building an image etc. It is more labor than most billionaires do even though she’s well-assisted. Most fucking golfies delegate their stonks to professionals and do nothing beyound socialising with equals and hearing from serfs. In a sense, she’s a medieval noble that don’t just burn through her wealth like there’s no tommorow but also indulge herself in art that makes traction outside of her bubble, regular people resonate with her music and that itself gives her some significance. School curiculum on humanities are filled with the likes of her.

            • glimse@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              Yeah, there’s nothing abstract about how she got her wealth. We all see her do the things that make her money and it doesn’t involve fucking people over. Can’t say the same about most billionaires

              • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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                21 days ago

                And she’d probably be less uncomfortable about forteiting her wealth while securing her comfort and a way to keep creating and singing for people. At least that’s what I idelastically think about artists going rich.

          • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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            20 days ago

            Guess I just reserve my ire for worse people. She works her ass off and produces actual stuff. Compare that to the CEOs of any billion dollar company who just try to milk every cent out of their customers they can.

            I’ve never seen Taylor. Never bought any of her merch. I’ve given her nothing (maybe some portion of my Spotify sub), but I get to enjoy her music. That’s a pretty good gig where the main thing you do can be enjoyed by all almost for free and you still have that kind of money.

            There are so many worse people on the planet I don’t understand hating on her at all. But you do you. I don’t have energy to hate you either. Have a good one.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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      20 days ago

      Look at it realistically.

      She’s not living a better life style than Frank Sinatra or Micheal Jackson did in their heyday.

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      19 days ago

      It’s not about how much money you have. It’s owner class vs working class. And even in the case of owner class, I would say that when the thing you own and make money from is yourself and your own image, that’s very different from owning the fruits of other people’s labour.

  • gazter@aussie.zone
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    20 days ago

    From my quick look at the source, this headline is just plain wrong. They simply multiply concert attendance by ticket price and call that Swift’s earnings. I’m assuming that other people need to be paid from those sales- like, I dunno, the production team, the dancers, the suppliers of staging, the ticket distributor, the cleanup crew, the people who make the lunch for the crew, the people who supply the ingredients for the lunch, the people who co-ordinate the vehicles that deliver the ingredients, the website design team, the stadiums themselves…

    • Tower@lemm.ee
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      20 days ago

      Without weighing in on the subject of TS being a billionaire, it’s just a terribly written article. Essentially just repeats the same phrases over and over about a handful of different states.

      Also, where the fuck did they get an average lifespan of 47.9 years???

      > residents would still need to work a whopping 215 years, or 4.59 lifetimes…

      215 / 4.59 = 47.98

      My mistake. It didn’t click for me that the article is talking about working years, not lifespan. Still a shittily written article.

      • GreatRam@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        Believe it or not, you don’t work your whole life. If you start working at 19 and work until retirement age(67) that’s 48 years

        • Tower@lemm.ee
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          20 days ago

          Damn, you’re right. I absolutely did not make that connection. Updated.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        20 days ago

        It’s probably LLM (“AI”) generated. As we all are probably aware now, it’s anything but intelligent. It just says bullshit confidently. The average lifespan number probably comes from some third world countries wiki page or something, but it doesn’t understand context and just uses pattern matching to fill in the next expected word. It doesn’t know what the information came from or how to apply it to other information.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      Ticketmaster takes something like half straight off the top. Then there’s a separate venue owner much of the time, concessions, technical staff, security, medical, and finally Swift’s staff who build the stage and maintain her equipment, any other talent on stage and then, the last person to get paid is Taylor Swift.

    • MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      It does specifically say revenue of a single show. Which as far as I’m concerned would include all ticket sales even if the proceeds from those sales don’t entirely go to Taylor. Though I do agree the headline is a bit disingenuous. If I’m being generous I’d say they’re referring to Taylor Swift the money making apparatus and less so Taylor Swift the person.

      • gazter@aussie.zone
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        20 days ago

        They repeatedly say “Taylor Swift earns”. If they were concerned at all about presenting information properly, they would say “gross income from a Taylor Swift concert”. It’s outrage clickbait, through and through. While I agree that Swift makes an outrageous amount of money, that outrage should be based on fact, not hyperbole.

  • mogoh@lemmy.ml
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    21 days ago

    Here is my wild take: Making that much money by performing a concert is perfectly fine. Performing a concert is work. People who went there clearly consent to that.

    In my opinion, this is different to making money by investing that is meaning making money by just owning stuff.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Pretty sure she has financial managers to keep her earned money working for her by investing in stocks and bonds and such.

      • mogoh@lemmy.ml
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        21 days ago

        Probably. And that is problematic. But it is a completely different criticism.

        • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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          21 days ago

          Why is that problematic? Is it because you think that that is even possible is bad? Or that her investing her money is bad.

          I’m genuinely curious.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      20 days ago

      Right - this is not passive income. She’s just massively in-demand, and can only exist in one place at a time.

      How much goes to everyone else at the venue would be a different conversation.

  • MikeOxlong@lemm.ee
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    21 days ago

    The article doesn’t really specify, but it looks like they’re pretending she keeps all the money to herself. Weird comparison.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    21 days ago

    And she’s not on the list of the top richest people in the world.

    If you look at her life style, she’s not doing much better than Mick Jagger or Michael Jackson were when they were at the top.

    On the other hand, look at the salaries of executives. CEOs who used to make 50 times what their employees made are a thing of the distant past.

  • br0da@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    Not specific to TS but for me personally, I’m just fucking sick of billionaires in this day and age. When so many are struggling just to make ends meet. It’s not their fault they’re this disgustingly rich, but it doesn’t make their unbalanced existence on this planet any easier to digest.

      • clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        The people who very loyally buy her tickets and her songs. She is rich because her product sells a lot. That’s it. If I made a product that sells a lot, be in high demand, and had a fanatic following, I would be rich as well.

        • kozy138@lemm.ee
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          20 days ago

          How does she go to so many shows so quickly?

          Lots and lots of private jet flights. Also planes/trucks haul tons of gear all over the world. These are sources of resource extraction that show her to sell so many tickets in so many places.

        • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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          20 days ago

          If I made a product that sells a lot, be in high demand, and had a fanatic following, I would be rich as well.

          Lmmfao, ok, temporarily embarrassed millionaire, you keep telling yourself that…

          What is less funny is that you think the people who are manipulated by a trillion dollar industry re to blame, and not those running and profiting from said industry.

          You are definitely a bigger part of the problem in shifting the blame the way you are, than any one of her fans buying a ticket or an album trying to enjoy their wage slave life for an hour or two.

      • br0da@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        The people giving them the fucking money?? Stop buying their shit

        • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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          20 days ago

          Seriously. There are some seriously stupid takes in the comments.

          Theres a clear difference from a rich person making money from selling their art and goods, and a rich person denying health claims that people pay for to make themselves rich.

          If you don’t like Taylor Swift taking your money, then why the fuck are you giving her money?

        • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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          20 days ago

          Oh yeah, as if there isn’t a trillion dollar industry manipulating them (and you, to defend those profiting from it, well done)… You’ve really got it all solved, haven’t you? 🙄🙄🙄

  • Roopappy@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    I’m all for trashing Healthcare CEO billionaires, but dammit… TayTay earns her money and doesn’t intentionally kill anyone doing it.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    20 days ago

    Grosses, right? Do I need to wade into the article to find out where the math errors and artistic license are on reporting the income for someone I don’t know, will never know, and don’t much care about?

    She sings well. She presents as a decent person. She’s making a lot of money providing a non-essential service people are dumping loads of discretionary spending on, and ancillary businesses in her touring path feel some osmotic benefit.

    Cool.

    Can we prioritize the Galen Westons and Trumps of the world for our hate and scorn? They seem to be doing far worse on a smaller scale that needs to be smaller still.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      Can we prioritize the Galen Westons and Trumps of the world

      I don’t know the first person but I assume they’re a rich POS. In which case, yes, we’re already prioritizing them. So much so that comment sections like this are full of apologia when it’s anyone who isn’t a piece of shit

    • Phineaz@feddit.org
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      21 days ago

      Strong public perception. Swift is often portrayed as a front runner of liberated women and modern (however-manyth wave) feminism as well as “woke” (I really hate that word) lifestyle aka pluralistic and aware of socioeconomic issues, which certain people don’t like. At the same time Swift was cited as one of the “worst” private jet owners for having taken the highest number of private flights in a certain group and timeframe (citation gravely needed). She is easy to attack due to the (supposedly) high moral standard people attribute to her image. Probably comparable to Gates in this regard.

      • 1984@lemmy.today
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        21 days ago

        Feminism has been weaponized today and it’s very entertaining to see it play out. :)

        Everyone is being turned against eachother and these celebrities are just branded in a specific way to make them likeable to the majority.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          We are. Taylor Swift and the like account for a tiny fraction of billionaire hate. Say what you mean, which apparently is “why ever criticize someone I like?”

          • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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            20 days ago

            I don’t give a fuck about Taylor.

            But if you put a billionaire oil baron, a billionaire healthcare exec, a billionaire drug manufacturer, and pop star in a room - you telling me the Pop Star has the same blood on her hands as all the others?

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              19 days ago

              No one is arguing with that. Just with the implication that we cannot complain about anyone but the worst culprit

          • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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            20 days ago

            Asking for the focus to be elsewhere is defending. “Don’t look at this bad thing” is not a neutral statement.

      • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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        20 days ago

        What? So like… Kill the person who is making shows that people pay money to go to?

        What did she do to you beside make you feel small?

        • intresteph@discuss.online
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          20 days ago

          I don’t feel small. All billionaires are evil. Even ones who sing well. She could show her appreciation for such massive wealth by selling her tickets for $20, or however much it takes to break even. How much additional profit does one really need after hitting that billion dollar mark?

          I guess I just expect more from people who have drained the economy of that kind of cash.

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    No one should be that rich. At the same time, thousands of people won’t show up to hear me sing.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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      20 days ago

      She also has a giant amount of people she pays with those earnings. Not saying she isn’t filthy rich, but she is an artist, writes most of her own words and music, and fought really hard to get compensated for it.

      I respect her for all of that. She probably also does a ton of charity. What she does is not easy. Most people can’t even write a verse/chorus/verse/chorus lyric that works, let alone piano and guitar. Actually make it so other people enjoy it, and perform that shit night after night all over the world. That’s a shit ton of traveling, setting up, doing the set, tearing all of that huge production down, and moving on to the next gig.

      I don’t listen to her at all, but I admire the amount of effort ot takes to do it. She’s not some CEO with a laptop flying around meeting other CEOs for drinks. People like her work hard. Other acts that do that have earned thier money too. Metallica, Rolling Stones, what have you. They write and perform and bust ass far more than you and me ever will.

      I wasn’t expecting that to pour out of me, i apologize. Lol

      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        All good!

        I would say busting ass doesn’t scale your success, but will agree it is a prerequisite. A lot of people with talent and work ethic don’t make it anywhere. Your force multiplier is opportunity, and that is scarce and unevenly distributed.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      I just don’t see how we can reconcile the two. People want to hear her sing and they’re willing to pay a lot for it.

      The main alternative I can think of is for her to sing for free and have the government pay for the production of her shows. As popular as she is I can’t see that going over well. Putting the arts under political control leads to the unnecessary politicization of the arts.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Hey she’s actually doing something. There are plenty of other extremely rich people they could have talked about but for some reason they chose her.