Taylor Swift Does Not Play When It Comes To Royalties, First Spotify, Now Apple
Taylor Swift has a big problem with Apple’s decision to withhold royalty payments during the trial periods for its users, and it has caused her to “hold back” her album from the catalog. Taylor will reportedly, add her album to the Apple streaming service after the problematic business model is changed. The singer gave a formal statement on Sunday. according to the New York Times.
In Taylor Swift’s statements, she makes sure to show appreciation to all the great things that Apple has done for music. Still, the singer feels that she deserves to be paid. Is she right? Based on her previous issues with Spotify, which caused her to remove her entire catalog from the streaming service, it seems that excluding her music from being played could cost her more money than being partially paid for it. On the other hand, it may cause a surge in records sales when fans want to hear her music and cannot access it on streaming services. The worse thing that Taylor demand for royalties can cause is severed relationship in the music business. Swift recently made a statement about burning bridges over royalties.
“These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much. We simply do not respect this particular call.”
Even with the idea that royalties are a basic artist right, Taylor Swift has reportedly, only chosen to exclude her current album 1989, from the Apple catalog. Taylor’s speak up attitude has caused many indie artists to follow in her footsteps. Recently. an independent artist management company, The Beggars Group, gave it’s artists a bonus for not signing with Apple Music. In a way. Taylor Swift is raising the standards for music streaming companies and royalties in general. After Jay-Z recently started his own,music streaming service, TIDAL, the number of artists willing to take pennies for their work have drastically dropped. But how is this effecting the actual business models of these streaming services?
So far, there has been no evidence that any streaming services have altered their business models to accommodate Taylor Swift. But the artist still continues her efforts in asking the companies to treat it’s consumer the same way as they treat Apple. Taylor Swift specifically uses the Apple iPhone as an example.
“We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
Though Taylor Swift’s efforts are admiral, it would probably benefit her more to start her own streaming service instead of trying to influence the entire industry. What do you think, is Swift Music a possibility?
[Image via Billboard]
