Taylor Swift Is The Most Powerful Brand In Music Today, Ask Apple And Spotify

Posted on by Siya

Taylor Swift is the Lisa Simpson of the music industry. She’s that know-it-all, that happens to be actually right most of the time, and always shows up her peers and sometimes perceived superiors.
And look, I’ll be the first to admit it, I hate that. Maybe I’m just biased because her music is not exactly my shower-tunes (except when I “Shake It Off” drying out from the shower – enjoy that mental image forever now), but even I in my haterade shower dancing can’t deny that in the battle for your streaming bucks between Spotify, Apple Music, and (lets be real) OTHERS, T-Swift is the Gettysburg. She’s the D-Day. Her latest album “1989” sold 1.2 Million copies on the first week back in October of last year. To date it is still at the #2 Album spot with over 6 Million American, and close to 10 million worldwide sales.  All in all – whoever does right by T-Swift, wins a major battle in the hearts and minds of young streamers.

Naturally, everybody freaked the hell out when she hinted at keeping her blockbuster album off the new Apple Music streaming service via a blog post on her tumblr page:

“Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and to work for nothing…change this policy…We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”

t swift blog benandsiyablogTaylor Swift raised a reasonable and amicable point about Apple Music, that she tried to with Spotify in the past.  Feel free to read it in its entirety, but here’s the gist:

  • Thanks to Apple Music’s 3-month free tier model, independent musicians, producers, and engineers don’t get paid while contributing to Apple’s growing user-base. Taylor don’t got time for that.
  • She won’t feature “1989” on the new Apple service, until they change that policy. Freemium is a politically correct way of saying “Free” as far as she’s concerned.
  • You can have her old stuff, though – because you’re cool Apple. Spotify gets NO Tay-Tay.

So maybe the response to these grievances that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed in his “$2 Billion and Counting” response to Taylor was ill-advised as Swift took this as calling her bluff.

“We’re not just streaming, we’re mainstreaming now, and that’s good for music makers and music lovers around the world.”

OH YEA? You might not be ready to be mainstreaming ANY of Taylor’s jelly, buddy.

Fair’s fare, Lisa Simpson. Fare’s fair. Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services immediately took the hint and didn’t make the same mistake:

Now, it could be that Apple pays folks next to nothing for that first 3 months, but the point is that they made artists FEEL HEARD AND RESPECTED.  Something the recording industry (even the new streamin avenue has failed to really do).  We all know artists (especially Swifty Hussle) are all about the money feelings.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/612841136311390209

On the way to launch date of June 30th, Apple Music is buying every life-vest it can to stay afloat. Your move, other guys.

hood evening, bishes (no typo)
“hood evening, bishes (no typo)”