There's Nothing Like This
The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Featured in Rolling Stone, People Magazine, US Weekly, USA Today, The Financial Times, and more
"Part tell-all book and part how-to guide, The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift offers music fans and Swifties alike a chance to learn from one of the biggest pop stars of all time." — Rolling Stone
Named one of "Thirty books we're excited to read in the first half of 2025" by The Sydney Morning Herald
Named to the Financial Times "What to Read in 2025" list
A smart, page-turning exploration of the business and creative decisions that transformed Taylor Swift into an unprecedented modern cultural phenomenon.
Singer-songwriter. Trailblazer. Mastermind. The Beatles of her generation. From her genre-busting rise in country music as a teenager to the economic juggernaut that is the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has blazed a path that is uniquely hers.
But how exactly has she managed to scale her success—multiple times—while dominating an industry that cycles through artists and stars like fashion trends? How has she managed to make and remake herself time and again while remaining true to her artistic vision? And how has she managed to master the constant disruption in the music business that has made it so hard for others to adapt and endure?
In There's Nothing Like This, Kevin Evers, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, answers these questions in riveting detail. With the same thoughtful analysis usually devoted to iconic founders, game-changing innovators, and pioneering brands, Evers chronicles the business and creative decisions that have defined each phase of Swift's career.
Mixing business and art, analysis and narrative, and pulling from research in innovation, creativity, psychology, and strategy, There's Nothing Like This presents Swift as the modern and multidimensional superstar that she is—a songwriting savant and a strategic genius.
Swift's fans will see their icon from a fresh perspective. Others will gain more than a measure of admiration for her ability to stay at the top of her game. And everyone will come away understanding why, even after two decades, Swift keeps winning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This astute debut study from Evers, an editor at Harvard Business Review, examines how business savvy helped Taylor Swift conquer the music industry. He recounts how a 14-year-old Swift exited her songwriting deal with RCA, who wanted to wait until she was 18 before launching her as a musical artist, so she could sign with a smaller label that released her debut album when she was 16, tapping into an underserved market of young fans who wanted to hear someone their own age sing about problems they could relate to. Evers suggests that the singer's transition from country to pop mirrors Nike's growth strategy of breaking into new markets by introducing products related to its established offerings. Swift excels at adapting to new technologies, Evers argues, contending that revealing the track list of Midnights on TikTok ahead of the album's release inspired rampant speculation about the meanings of the song titles and demonstrated Swift's ability to dominate social media. She also adjusted to the rise of streaming by releasing more songs at a quicker clip, likely hoping that the greater quantity would increase her odds of getting picked up by algorithm-generated recommendations. The sharp analysis of Swift's branding and financial dealings reveals how a canny business sense is as integral to stardom as artistic talent. It's a unique take on the ubiquitous musician.
