No surprise: the Songwriters Hall of Fame, set for Thursday, is sold out.
The annual event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, is always popular.
But this year, publicity magnet Taylor Swift is coming and will perform a song — maybe her new “Toy Story 5” hit.
Others will sing her songs. The room will be buzzing.
But even after all these years, no one knows exactly why or what is going on.
According to its form 990, the Songwriter Hall of Fame has $8 million in assets.
But there is no actual Songwriters Hall of Fame. It just exists on paper. There’s no building, and no permanent installation at, say, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The SHOF lists one employee, Linda Moran, who runs the show for $200,000 a year. She was hired in 2001 and never left. Her directive is to organize the annual awards show by courting record companies and music publishers to buy seats for the dinner.
It’s not like the group is donating money or creating music scholarships of any note, either. According to that form 990, they gave away $90,000 last year — although that was an improvement from $65,000 in 2024. (It’s unclear where even that money goes. Unlike other charities and foundations, the SHOF doesn’t list its donees.)
(Full disclosure: I was on the nominating committee many years ago. But they tossed me because they didn’t like having a journalist around, too many secrets and all that.)
By the end of this week, the SHOF will have more than $12 million banked, and still no stated goal for what they’re doing with it — even after 25 years.
Hey — with all those seats at the Garden, maybe Moran and co. will get wedding invitations. It’s the least Taylor can do. Her induction is the fastest in Hall history.
