This was the year in which Taylor Swift went big city on us. Just before releasing her fifth album, 1989, the 25-year-old singer announced that, after a decade in Nashville, she had decided to leave behind Music Row for Manhattan. Then, to make it clear that she and Nashville are never, ever getting back together, Swift told the world she now wants her music to be thought of as pop, not country. Nashvilles many country-music purists rejoiced.
But the queen of kiss-off songs was kind enough to leave the Music City a parting gift. She started a feud with Spotify, the top streaming service. Upset over her royalty payments, Swift not only withheld 1989 from Spotifys servers; she also asked the company to stop streaming her previous albums. Swifts label, Big Machine Records, claims to have received less than $500,000 from Spotify in the 12 months prior to her music coming down. The service would have paid out $6m for Swifts music in 2014 had she allowed it to stream her new album. Even taking into account the cut taken by Universal, which distributes Swifts music, the gap between the two sides figures is substantial.
Yet the decision appears to have paid off for Swift. Her new album sold 1.3m copies in its first week, becoming the first album released in 2014 to go platinum. It was also the best one-week performance by an album in 12 years. And 1989 has continued to sell well since, having spent five weeks in Billboards top slot. (The other two weeks the album has been out, it ranked second in sales.)
Spotify, for its part, has managed to shake the controversy off. Though Swift was one of the services most popular artists, the companys chief executive spins the row as having generated good publicity for his site, as it fights for market share with competitors such as Pandora.
Swift was in a strong position to make such a power play. As the most popular artist on an independent label, Swift could dictate the terms for her albums release. And as often mocked as she may be, her songs of teenaged angst have a large and loyal following. The girls for whom Swifts music is written and the parents who shop for those girls are almost certain to buy it in any form Swift chooses, especially with its release coming so close to Christmas.
Swift also has the advantage of playing to a fanbase that has been late to adopt streaming. Perhaps because of slower download speeds and spottier internet service in rural areas, country-music fans continue to be major listeners of radio and buyers of CDs. One can imagine her core audience catching Blank Space or a previous hit over the airwaves while driving to pick up 1989 at the nearest Walmart.
But it isnt clear Swifts attempt to stand athwart the march of technology will have a lasting impact on the music industry. She says shes been thanked privately by fellow musicians, but its far easier to cheer from the sidelines than enter the fray. While Radioheads Thom Yorke pulled music from Spotify before Swift made her announcement, only Jason Aldean, a country singer with similar relationships to his label and to his fans, appears to have followed her lead.
Unless more pop and hip-hop artists take up the banner, Swifts tiff with Spotify will be remembered as just another of her spoiled relationships, not the beginning of a revolution. Maybe now that her divorce from Nashville has been finalised, she should patch things up with Katy Perry.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/01/taylor-swift-spotify-feud-nashville-new-york
