The Story of Taylor Swift and Spotify
Author: Alissa McCarthy
Another one bites the dust, eh Taylor Swift? When it comes to the Country Singer/Pop Princess/Rap Dabbling extraordinaire, no boy or online music streaming site is safe from rejection. As of last week, Swift upset millions of technologically inclined tweens by not only refusing to post her new album 1989 on Spotify, but by also removing her four other studio records from the music streaming service. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like she really shook things up in both the music and online data sharing industries.
A general announcement to any online music site looking to stream Taylor’s music for free, and any boy looking to screw her over: You won’t get away with it, expect revenge.
Spotify, however, wasn’t going to give in that easily. The way to win any girl’s heart is through flattery, right? Spotify thinks so! Shortly after Taylor swiped her albums away, the streaming service attempted to woo her back with a post on the company’s blog reading, “We love Taylor Swift, and our more than 40 million users love her even more, nearly 16 million of them have played her songs in the last 30 days and she’s on over 19 million playlists.”
Nice try, Spotify. Taylor Swift, along with her record label Big Machine, recognize that nothing in life should be free. The singer justifies her decision by claiming, “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music.” What Taylor Swift and Big Machine don’t recognize is that the world is changing, and they should really let Spotify finish, because it may be one of the best streaming services of all time. The company has a mission of “building a new music economy that works for everyone”, and that allows fans to listen to artists, “wherever and whenever they want”. Sure, Taylor made a bold statement. Many investors in Spotify, as well as the company itself, are worried other big names will follow her lead. But where she is headed with this, I’m not entirely sure.
And if all you can think while reading this article is, “Darn! I wish there was another way I could listen to T.Swizzle for free!”, fear not! Check out:
www.youtube.com
www.soundcloud.com
www.soundowl.com
And the list goes on. We have entered into a generation in which not everything is protected. A lot of personal information is not. Some ideas are not. Music not so much either. It is important in the coming years for creators and users of all kinds to work together so that everyone is happy.
And for those of you who would really just like to see everyone be miserable, why ya gotta be so mean?
Music, spotify, streaming, taylor swift
