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Verizon on Monday named former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately.
Schulman replaces Hans Vestberg, who led the company since 2018.
In its announcement, Verizon reiterated its previous financial guidance for full-year 2025.

Dan Schulman, CEO, Paypal speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020.
Adam Galacia | CNBC

Verizon announced on Monday that the board of directors has appointed former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as the company’s new CEO.
Schulman replaces Hans Vestberg, who had led the company since 2018.

Shares of the company rose slightly in premarket trading following the announcement.
Verizon said Vestberg will remain on the board of directors until the 2026 annual meeting and will serve as a special advisor through Oct. 4, 2026, to ensure a smooth transition and close the deal to acquire Frontier Communications.
Verizon on Monday also announced that Mark Bertolini would be chairman of the company’s board of directors.
“The board is thrilled to have Dan as Verizon’s next CEO, and embark on a new chapter of growth and sector leadership,” Bertolini said in a statement. “Dan is a seasoned and decisive leader with a unique set of experiences, and a proven record of transformative leadership and operational excellence. He is the right leader to chart Verizon’s next phase of increased customer focus and financial growth.”
At PayPal, Schulman grew the company’s revenue from $8 billion to $30 billion, according to the announcement, and added “hundreds of millions” of new customers for the global payments platform. He has served on Verizon’s board of directors since 2018.

“Verizon is at a critical juncture,” Schulman said in a statement. “We have a clear opportunity to redefine our trajectory, by growing our market share across all segments of the market, while delivering meaningful growth in our key financial metrics. We are going to maximize our value propositions, reduce our cost to serve, and optimize our capital allocation to delight our customers and deliver sustainable long-term growth for our shareholders.”
Vestberg, who became CEO in 2018 and chairman of the board in 2019, is known for creating the company’s 5G network strategy. In a statement, he said now was “a good time to pass the baton” to Schulman.
Verizon also reiterated its previously issued full-year 2025 financial guidance.
In May, the Federal Communications Commission announced it was approving Verizon’s $20 billion deal to acquire Frontier, a fiber-optic internet provider. FCC chair Brendan Carr had probed Verizon for its diversity, equity and inclusion programs and said they could be a factor in the Frontier deal, but the agency gave its blessing to the merger when the company agreed to end those programs.
Verizon said the deal will allow it to upgrade and expand Frontier’s network capabilities across the country by bringing more fiber to roughly 1 million American households. Verizon called the acquisition “a cornerstone” of its broadband expansion strategy. More

Online spending is expected to jump 5.3% year over year to a total of $253.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
That growth still would mark a slowdown from the year-ago holiday period, when online sales surged 8.7%.
Retail sales in the U.S. have chugged along, but concerns about higher prices from tariffs and dipping consumer confidence have complicated the outlook for the critical shopping season.

Alistair Berg | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Online holiday spending in the U.S. is expected to jump 5.3% year over year to $253.4 billion as consumers seek discounts and even enlist the help of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots, according to an Adobe Analytics report released Monday.
Yet that growth would still be slower than the year-ago holiday season, when online sales rose 8.7% from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, the company said. Adobe’s data tracks more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, 100 million unique items and 18 different product categories.

That growth is also below the 10-year average of roughly 13% annually. That mark was partially skewed by the 32% year-over-year growth in 2020 when consumers leaned on retailers’ online options during the Covid pandemic.

Customers’ desire to celebrate the season with decor and gifts — and to take advantage of lower prices during a promotional time — will prop up spending even at an uncertain time for the U.S. economy, said Vivek Pandya, Adobe’s director of digital insights.
“The holiday season is one of the areas where they do feel much more of an onus and a drive to get the goods they need,” he said. “We’re seeing them willing to spend and capitalize on these sales moments.”
Plus, he said consumers have embraced the habit of stockpiling goods if they feel prices may be volatile, which could help to stabilize spending.
He said while holiday spending is expected to slow from last year, “given everything that the consumer is dealing with, it’s still pronounced growth.”

Higher online spending may not necessarily translate to a boost in overall holiday sales. Adobe’s data tracks only e-commerce, and the company estimates about one in four dollars of holiday sales will be spent online, Pandya said.
Retail sales in the U.S. have chugged along this year, but concerns about higher prices from tariffs and dipping consumer confidence have complicated the outlook for the critical shopping season. Some holiday forecasts, which capture both in-store and online spending, have predicted more modest growth than in recent years or even a decline.
Holiday spending across stores and online is expected to grow 4% year over year – a decline from the 10-year average of 5.2% growth, according to consulting firm Bain & Company’s projections.
Consumers said they plan to spend about 5% less – or an average of $1,552 – on holiday gifts, travel and entertainment, compared to the year-ago season, according to a survey by consulting firm PwC, which included a representative sample of 4,000 U.S. consumers and was conducted in late June and early July. That projected spending, in particular, was dragged down by members of Gen Z saying that they planned to spend 23% less than the year-ago holiday season, according to PwC’s survey.
Adobe expects the peak of holiday spending during Cyber Week, which stretches from Thanksgiving through the Monday after Christmas that’s dubbed Cyber Monday. That five-day period is expected to drive 17.2%, or $43.7 billion, of overall online holiday spending, Adobe said, roughly in line with the 17% that period accounted for in the year-ago holiday season.
Discounting levels will be roughly similar to the year-ago holiday season, Adobe predicted, with slightly weaker discounts in some categories. For example, discounts on electronics are expected to peak at 28% off the listed price compared to 30.1% in the year-ago period. Adobe expects toys to hit 27% off compared to 28% in the year-ago period.
Mobile devices will be the primary driver for online shopping, Adobe said, with the company expecting holiday shopping done there to account for 56.1% of online spending compared with desktops. It’s a meaningful jump from the 40% of online spending that mobile devices represented during the 2020 holiday season.
As shoppers search for gifts, more are expected to turn to generative AI-powered chat services and browsers to research what toys, jewelry, clothing or other items to buy. Adobe expects AI traffic to rise by 520% year over year, with the busiest traffic days leading up to Thanksgiving. More

In partnership with AMC, Taylor Swift brought a 90-minute movie to cinemas for one weekend only to celebrate the release of her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
The three-day event tallied an estimated $33 million domestically, the biggest album debut event in cinema history.
This is the second collaboration between Swift and AMC. In 2023, the theater chain secured the rights to distribute a filmed version of Swift’s Eras Tour concert, generating $261 million in box office globally.

A person wearing an outfit inspired by The Eras Tour poses in front of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” posters at an AMC theater to celebrate the release of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” in New York City, U.S., Oct. 3, 2025.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters

Taylor Swift gave the box office a boost this weekend.
In partnership with AMC, the singer-songwriter brought a 90-minute movie to cinemas for one weekend only to celebrate the release of her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

The three-day event tallied an estimated $33 million domestically, the biggest album debut event in cinema history. Internationally, the film snared $13 million, bringing the estimated global box office total to $46 million for the weekend.
“On behalf of AMC Theatres and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I extend our sincerest appreciation to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to movie theatres this weekend,” AMC’s CEO Adam Aron said in a statement Sunday. “Her vision to add a cinematic element to her incredible album debut was nothing less than a triumph.”
Swift’s “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” featured a music video for the song “The Fate of Ophelia,” as well as behind-the-scenes footage from the music video shoot, lyric videos for other songs on the album and personal reflections from the singer.
This is the second collaboration between Swift and AMC. In 2023, the theater chain secured the rights to distribute a filmed version of Swift’s Eras Tour concert. The concert film generated more than $261 million at the global box office. It is currently the highest-grossing concert film of all time. More

Shares of the Detroit automakers jumped Friday afternoon following a report that President Donald Trump is considering “significant tariff relief” for the production of vehicles in the U.S.
Stocks for General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis shifted from trading level or down to closing up between 1% to 4% on the report from Reuters.

GM Hummer EV production in Detroit.
Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors

DETROIT — Shares of the Detroit automakers closed higher Friday following an afternoon report that President Donald Trump is considering “significant tariff relief” for the production of vehicles in the U.S.
Stocks for General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis shifted from trading level or down to closing up between 1% to 4% on the report from Reuters.

The news organization, citing Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio as well as auto officials, said the potential change could “effectively eliminate much of the costs major car companies are paying.”
“The signal to the car companies around the world is, look, you have final assembly in the U.S.: we’re going to reward you,” Moreno told Reuters during an interview. “For Ford, for Toyota, for Honda, for Tesla, for GM, those are the, almost in order, the top five domestic content vehicle producers — they’ll be immune to tariffs.”

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GM, Ford, Stellantis and Tesla stocks

Reuters reported that the changes could include extending a tariff offset of 3.75% for five years, as well as adding U.S. engine production to the relief.
Shares of Ford, which assembles the most vehicles in the U.S., closed Friday at a new 52-week high of $12.67, up 3.7%. U.S.-listed shares of Stellantis closed up 3.2% to $10.73 per share, while GM closed at $60.13, up 1.3%
Tesla stock was little changed on the news, closing down 1.4% to $429.83 per share, while U.S.-listed shares for other automakers with notable operations in the U.S., such as Honda Motor and Toyota Motor, saw bumps.

Trump’s tariffs of 25% on imported vehicles and parts have been a major concern for the automotive industry, costing companies billions of dollars in higher costs.
Ford previously said it expected $3 billion in U.S. tariff-related costs this year, $1 billion of which it believed it could mitigate. GM has said it expected up to $5 billion in gross tariff-related costs this year, adding that it could potentially avoid at least 30% of that cost this year.
Automakers have been lobbying the Trump administration for relief, especially for U.S.-produced vehicles, as well as those imported from Canada and Mexico. More

New data provided to CNBC from Motor Intelligence shows U.S. sales of electric vehicles, excluding hybrids, topped 1 million units through the first nine months of the year.
EVs also set a new quarterly record of more than 438,000 units sold during the third quarter — achieving market share of 10.5% for the period.
Tesla and General Motors are leading the U.S. automotive industry this year in all-electric vehicle sales.

DETROIT – Tesla and General Motors are leading the U.S. automotive industry this year in record domestic sales of all-electric vehicles, as consumers hurried to buy EVs before up to $7,500 in federal incentives for each purchase ended in September.
New data provided to CNBC from Motor Intelligence shows U.S. sales of EVs, excluding hybrids, topped 1 million units through the first nine months of the year and set a new quarterly record of more than 438,000 units sold during the third quarter — achieving market share of 10.5% for the period.

That record market share is up from 7.4% during the second quarter and 7.6% during the first three months of the year, according to Motor Intelligence. Sales of all-electric models were estimated to be 1.3 million in 2024, with a roughly 8% market share.
U.S. EV industry leader Tesla, which does not report sales by region, is estimated to have retained its leadership position with a 43.1% market share through September, according to the data. That’s down from 49% to end last year, as competitors continue to release new EVs.

GM, which offers the most EV models in the U.S., has made significant gains this year. Motor Intelligence reported that the Detroit automaker went from an 8.7% market share to begin this year to 13.8% through the third quarter – topping Hyundai Motor, including Kia, at 8.6% through September.
The sales data comes two days after GM estimated it leads the U.S. industry in EV market share growth so far in 2025, with the lowest incentives of any major automaker. It sold 144,668 EVs through September, which still only represented 6.8% of its total U.S. sales.  
“No one is in a stronger position for a changing U.S. market than GM,” Duncan Aldred, GM president of North America, said in a release. “We have the best lineup of ICE [internal combustion engine] and EV vehicles we’ve ever had. Our brands have grown market share with consistently strong pricing, and low incentives and inventory.”

Following Tesla, GM and Hyundai, Motor Intelligence data shows Ford Motor’s EV market share was 6.6% through the third quarter, followed by Volkswagen at 5.4%; Honda Motor at 4.6%; and BMW at 3.6%.

A Tesla Cybertruck and GMC Sierra Denali EV First Edition next to one another.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

Despite sales increasing each quarter of this year, EV startups Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group continue to have a relatively small EV market share. Lucid remains under 1%, while Rivian was at 3% through September.
Major automakers reported third-quarter results this week that were led by EV sales. The rush to buy electric cars came ahead of the federal incentives for those vehicles ending as a result of the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Industry analysts and executives believe the incentives ending will create a boom-and-bust cycle for the sale of EVs in the U.S.
Ford CEO Jim Farley on Tuesday said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if sales of EVs fell from an industry market share of around 10% to 12% in September to 5% after the incentive program ends.
The end of EV credits for the U.S. comes as the country continues to trail other major automakers in the adoption of zero-emission vehicles. The International Energy Agency reports China continued to lead EV adoption globally last year, with sales of 6.4 million all-electric vehicles, not counting hybrids, followed by Europe at 2.2 million units.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report. More

The top 10% of Americans added $5 trillion to their wealth in the second quarter as the stock market rally continued to benefit the biggest investors, according to new Federal Reserve data.
All wealth groups saw gains over the past year, with the net worth of the bottom half of Americans increasing 6% over the past 12 months, according to the Fed data.
The growth has been fastest for those at the very top.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The top 10% of Americans added $5 trillion to their wealth in the second quarter as the stock market rally continued to benefit the biggest investors, according to new data from the Federal Reserve.

The total wealth of the top 10% — or those with a net worth of more than $2 million — reached a record $113 trillion in the second quarter, up from $108 trillion in the first quarter, according to the Fed. The increase follows three years of continued growth for those at the top, with the top 10% adding over $40 trillion to their wealth since 2020.
All wealth groups saw gains over the past year, with the net worth of the bottom half of Americans increasing 6% over the past 12 months, according to the Fed data. Yet the growth has been fastest for those at the very top. The top 1% have seen their wealth increase by $4 trillion over the past year, an increase of 7%. Their wealth hit a record $52 trillion in the second quarter.
The top 0.1% saw their wealth grow by 10% over the past year. Since the pandemic, the top 0.1%, or those with a net worth of at least $46 million, have seen their total wealth nearly double to over $23 trillion.
Despite the recent faster growth at the top, the total shares of wealth held by the upper echelon has remained fairly stable for decades. The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter, compared with 28% in 2000. The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter while the bottom 90% held 33%.

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The biggest driver of wealth gains at the top this year has been the stock market. The value of the corporate equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 10% increased from $39 trillion to over $44 trillion over the past year. The top 10% of Americans hold over 87% of corporate equities and mutual fund shares.

The population of the ultra-wealthy is also growing rapidly. The number of ultra-high-net-worth Americans, or those worth $30 million or more, grew 6.5% in the first half of 2025, after surging 21% last year, according to a new report from Altrata. There are now 208,090 ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the U.S., accounting for 41% of the world’s total.
The surging wealth at the top has created an increasingly bifurcated consumer economy, with the wealthy accounting for a growing share of overall spending. Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of consumer spending in the second quarter, marking the highest level since data started being compiled in 1989, according to Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics.
The so-called “K-shaped economy” has performed well so far, at least according to broad economic measures such as GDP and consumption. Yet the growing dependence on a small sliver of consumers at the top carries risks.
Zandi said a deep and prolonged decline in the stock market, which is driving almost all of the wealth gains at the top, could send wider ripples through the economy.
“The economy is being powered in big part by the spending of the extraordinarily well-to-do, who are cheered by the surging value of their stock portfolios,” he said. “If the richly (over) valued stock market were to stumble, for whatever reason, and the well-to-do see more red on their stock tickers than green, they will quickly turn more cautious in their spending, posing a serious threat to the already fragile economy.” More

Higher interest rates, a capital market retraction and a push by almost all venture capital into AI collectively hit property technology hard.
“You saw a lot of companies and new businesses and venture funds die. We just lived through an extinction event,” said Brendan Wallace, co-founder and CEO of venture capital firm Fifth Wall.
Climate tech, specifically, is becoming increasingly challenged due to the political winds in the U.S. that have shifted dramatically away from sustainability and climate resilience.

Fifth Wall co-founder and CEO Brendan Wallace.
Courtesy of Fifth Wall

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
As with much of the real estate industry, property technology, generally defined as the use of tech and software to make real estate and property management more efficient, took a big hit in recent years. 

Higher interest rates, a capital market retraction and a push by almost all venture capital into artificial intelligence collectively hit property tech hard. While there is, of course, some AI in property tech, it hasn’t been enough to really drive interest in a sector that has historically been extremely slow to modernize. 
“I’d say we just lived through probably the most challenging three years that certainly I’ve ever experienced,” said Brendan Wallace, co-founder and CEO of Fifth Wall. “You saw a lot of companies and new businesses and venture funds die. We just lived through an extinction event.”
Fifth Wall is a venture capital fund managing over $3 billion in capital, the largest investment firm focused on technology for the built environment.

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Wallace said the winter is over for property tech, citing last year’s IPO of ServiceTitan, a cloud-based field service management software for trades such as HVAC, plumbing, electrical and landscaping. The company raised about $625 million in its initial public offering, and shares jumped 42% in their Nasdaq debut. 
Wallace also noted new unicorns, such as Juniper Square and Bilt, which bode well for the future of property tech investing. Bilt, a platform offering loyalty rewards for housing, raised $250 million in July at a $10.75 billion valuation in a funding round led by General Catalyst and GID, including a strategic investment from United Wholesale Mortgage.  

“The amount of enterprise value destruction that happened to prop tech was unprecedented from 2022 to 2024, but the amount of enterprise value creation that has just happened in the last 15 months has also been unprecedented,” Wallace said.
That is not the case, however, in climate-related property tech. That space is becoming increasingly challenged due to the political winds in the U.S. that have shifted dramatically away from sustainability and climate resilience, not to mention climate science overall. As a result, the entire climate tech ecosystem in real estate is suffering. 
Again, real estate has always been slow to modernize and was particularly slow to decarbonize. It got a huge boost, however, from President Joe Biden’s administration and billions of dollars in public funding, much of which went to decarbonizing real estate overall. Then, Wallace said, the world shifted under its feet.
“Many climate funds are struggling to raise. Many real estate owners are deprioritizing sustainability, decarbonization and ESG [environmental, social and governance], and there is a palpable, negative sentiment shift that has set on climate-related prop tech,” Wallace explained. “And so what that means is we’re still supporting our companies. We’re actually still seeing lots of good progress, but the sentiment is negative.”
Despite the shift, he said he is optimistic about the sector for one powerful reason: While national policy may be anti-climate, local governments are not. Cities are running out of money, and carbon taxes are a very attractive way of raising capital. New York City is a prime example. It is not only moving much further left in its politics, but it has consistently been more environmentally progressive. 
Fifth Wall, one of the biggest investors in this space, is taking the long-term play, investing while the negative “halo” around climate persists because valuations are attractive.
“My view is the real estate industry is still responsible for 40% of carbon emissions. It’s still this industry that has shirked its responsibility for years, and it’s going to cost a lot to decarbonize. It’s a lot of money, and capital is going to flow into that space … which is one of the reasons why we’re still deploying capital, because we’re the only ones,” Wallace said. More

Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” will launch Friday with at least seven collectible vinyl variants that are expected to drive sales.
Vinyl records, CDs and cassettes escape U.S. tariffs thanks to a Cold War-era exemption, keeping prices stable for fans but frustrating U.S. manufacturers, who argue tariffs could strengthen domestic production.
Physical music’s resurgence has been driven largely by Gen Z collectors and social media “vinyl hauls,” turning vinyl into one of the music industry’s fastest-growing segments.

Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium on June 21, 2024, in London.
Kevin Mazur | Getty Images

On Friday, 24-year-old Tayra McDaniels will scamper down the stairs of her East Village apartment building and pick up four preordered vinyl editions of Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” — each a different color and with a different collectible cover. Then she’ll head over to Target to snag three more exclusive CDs and another vinyl, she said.
The haul will cost her more than $200. “I know it’s a lot of money,” she said. “But I don’t want to miss out.”

One point of reprieve in the price: McDaniels and other vinyl fans won’t have to worry about tariffs on their hauls.
Vinyl records, CDs and cassettes were spared from the Trump administration’s late-August rollback of the “de minimis” exemption. The exemption, which had allowed packages valued at less than $800 to be imported without tariffs, was designed to simplify customs for low-cost imports and reduce fees for both consumers and small retailers. Trump’s rollback of the exemption allowed tariffs to take effect on such shipments — but not on physical music.
A Cold War-era carveout known as the Berman Amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act prevents presidents from regulating the flow of “informational materials,” a category that includes physical music, books and artwork.
“If vinyl had gotten tariffed, you could have possibly seen the price of a record going up to $40 and $50,” Berklee College of Music professor Ralph Jaccodine told CNBC. “So, this is welcome news for people buying physical music.”
The exemption, which is protecting one of the fastest-growing segments of the music industry, is also welcome on Wall Street.

Vinyl sales have roared back in the past decade, particularly during the pandemic, driven by younger buyers and an appetite for nostalgia. The PVC discs now account for nearly three-quarters of all U.S. physical music revenue — a nearly 20% jump since 2020, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.
“It is very encouraging and a bit of a relief that physical music formats have been classified as exempt to tariffs,” said Ryan Mitrovich, general manager of the Vinyl Alliance, a nonprofit promoting physical media that works with manufacturers, distributors and music labels. “However, we’re not really taking anything for granted here with the chaotic climate around trade disruptions.”

The sales boom has been lucrative for record labels such as Universal Music Group, or UMG, which works with Swift.
Her last album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” sold 3.49 million physical and digital copies, according to entertainment data company Luminate, driving a 9.6% jump in UMG’s second-quarter revenue in 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Physical revenue, which includes vinyl, surged by 14.4% during the quarter.
Without a Swift album on shelves so far this year, UMG’s most recent earnings report, in July, showed a 4.5% uptick in revenue year over year, but physical revenue decreased by 12.4%. UMG shares fell 24% after the July earnings release.
Universal Music Group declined to comment.
The downturn could be short-lived. Estimates from Billboard predict that first-week vinyl sales of Swift’s new 12-track album, which debuts Friday, could top 1 million — breaking her own record of 859,000 for “The Tortured Poets Department.”
“Taylor Swift has unique ability to drive the market through her decisions of what and how to release music,” said Jaccodine, who has worked with artists such as Bruce Springsteen. “Swift’s release can and will likely cause a boom in the music business.”

Arrows pointing outwards

Source: TaylorSwift.com

Tariff trade-offs

Not everyone is celebrating the tariff exemptions. Some American record manufacturers say they’re missing out on business.
“We support the tariffs because it helps U.S. manufacturing, and we want to be a part of the wave of making things in the USA,” Alex Cushing, co-founder and president of Dallas-based Hand Drawn Records, told CNBC.
Most vinyl is pressed overseas, industry experts said, with the largest manufacturer, GZ Media, based in the Czech Republic. GZ CEO Michal Štěrba said the company has made top-selling albums for artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna and U2. On average, the company produces 1 in 4 records from plants around the globe, including ones in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, he added.
“Our goal is to keep production as close to the customer as possible, so that a record sold in the U.S. is also made in the U.S.,” Štěrba told CNBC.
If tariffs were imposed, Štěrba said, costs would get passed on to consumers.
“By keeping tariff costs out of the supply chain — regardless of the product or country — consumers benefit through better pricing,” Štěrba said in a statement. “Ultimately, it’s usually the customer who has to pay a higher price if tariffs are applied.”
Cushing, a board member of the Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association, said he believes there would be more American jobs if tariffs were to apply to vinyl.
“We could put more hard-working Americans to work with good wages,” he said. “Our company makes 2 million records annually with a staff of just 60. If you want to grow manufacturing jobs, this would be a great industry.”
Cushing said U.S. manufacturers like his don’t have the capacity to handle the demand for an album on Swift’s scale. But for smaller-scale artists, he said, tariffs on imports could shift more business stateside.
“Our raw materials are tariffed, but with skyrocketing shipping and material costs globally, regional shipping in the U.S., coupled with having lower inventory, could help lower costs,” Cushing said.
Some American manufacturers preempted extra costs earlier this year.
“Tariffs were definitely forecasted, and the industry was preparing for this for quite a while,” Vinyl Alliance’s Mitrovich said. “We saw a lot of companies defend against this by increasing their stocks of ink, PVC and other things in the months leading up to the tariffs.”

A man browses through vinyl records.
SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Artists’ earnings

For many artists, physical sales remain more lucrative than streaming.
On Spotify, earnings usually range between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream based on an artist’s contract with their record label, Jaccodine said. Meanwhile, artists typically enjoy between 10% and 25% of royalties on physical records, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
“Unless you are just a handful of musicians, you basically are not making enough money from streaming to sustain,” Jaccodine said. “For artists large and small, merchandise like records, CDs, cassettes, hats, hoodies and ticket sales are the bread and butter.”
For comparison, Swift’s Eras Tour, which was the highest-grossing tour of all time, sold over $2 billion worth of tickets for 149 shows over two years, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, she earned between $200 million and $400 million from streaming platforms over that same period, according to figures from Billboard.

A display showing copies of Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour Book” at a Target store in Alexandria, Virginia, Nov. 29, 2024.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters

Gen Z’s buying power

Analysts expect the vinyl market to keep expanding, though not at the explosive pace seen during the pandemic.
“The market for vinyl is strong and is likely to be for the foreseeable future, but there could always be supply troubles,” Jaccodine said.
Gen Z has fueled vinyl’s resurgence, industry experts said. Nearly 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds in a survey by music manufacturer Key Production said they listen to physical music, the highest of any demographic group. The survey was conducted Feb. 27-March 5, 2024, in the U.K., and had 503 respondents.
The vinyl comeback also kicked off an explosion in the number of “variants” released: collectible editions of albums or singles with alternative cover art, colored discs or vinyl-exclusive bonus tracks.
On TikTok, “vinyl hauls” rack up millions of views as fans show off rare variants and collections, sparking demand and motivating fans such as McDaniels to buy.
“It’s sort of like Pokémon where you ‘gotta catch ’em all,'” McDaniels said. “There’s FOMO [fear of missing out] if someone has a variant that you don’t.”
Experts said Gen Z’s interest in vinyl is also a response to digital burnout.
“So many groups are on their screens paying fees to have access to content but do not ever actually own anything, so this gives them physical ownership,” Cushing said. “Vinyl is counter to all the ease of modern music listening and that’s why people want it.”
No artist has capitalized on the trend more than Swift.
“The Tortured Poets Department” was 2024’s top album, accounting for over 6% of total album sales — more than seven times the next-best-selling artist, according to Luminate. Swift released 36 different album variants in the U.S. across digital and physical music.  
“The Life of a Showgirl” comes in at least seven different variants of colored vinyl, each with a unique cover. For Swift and UMG, every exclusive edition of a vinyl record, CD or cassette has the potential to generate millions in extra revenue.
“Sales of Swift’s albums act as drivers for the fortunes of almost the entire music industry,” Jaccodine said. “Her fans are waiting with bated breath for the release, but so is the industry.”
For McDaniels and thousands of other superfans, the lingering question is how easy it will be to get the exclusive variants first.
“I know people think it’s crazy,” she said. “As long as a vinyl stays under $75 for a new release, I feel like it is worth it. It’s like an addiction to getting these, but I love collecting them.” More