Is Taylor Swift right about Spotify? Are marquee artists who
abstain from streaming services like Spotify saving the music industry, or
hastening its demise? Let’s find out. Shall we?
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| Singer Taylor Swift performs on ABC’s Good Morning America
to promote her new album, 1989, in New York, Oct. 30. |
The Spotify community and music industry prognosticators
were set spinning today when Taylor Swift and her label, Big Machine Records,
abruptly pulled her entire catalog from the service. A source told BuzzFeed
News that the move came as a surprise to Spotify, which didn’t receive a formal
takedown notice until last Thursday.
That source said Spotify was given no rationale by Big
Machine Records or management for the decision, but pointed to the prospective
sale of Big Machine for upwards of $200 million — first reported over the
weekend — as the reason.
“They think they can get a better sale multiple by creating
scarcity to drive record sales, that’s what this is about,” said the source.
“It almost makes sense if you think about it from the perspective of a business
trying to sell itself for as much as possible, but it doesn’t make sense for
the artist or her fans.”
But this isn’t the first time the Shake It Off singer has
set herself at odds with Spotify. In 2012, she withheld her blockbuster album
Red from the service for months after its release (1989, her new album, never
arrived there), indicating that she’s never fully supported it.
So why not?
While the rest of the music industry has largely accepted
recent declines in the demand for physical and digital albums — opting to
maximize other revenue streams like touring and publishing in its place — album
sales are still a big deal for an artist of the I Knew You Were Trouble
hitmaker’s stature. Her broad appeal, track record of hit songs, and wildly
engaged fanbase add up to a crucial value for retailers, especially during
release week.
1989’s current, remarkable first-week run — expected to
result in over 1.3 million copies sold — will actually best the 1.2 million Red
sold in a week in 2012, when album sales across the industry were much higher
on average than they have been this year. In fact, 1989 may end up having the
biggest first week for an album since 2002, when Eminem released The Eminem
Show and Carson Daly was still a household name.
There’s a persistent and powerful faction of the music
industry that believes big first-week numbers like these are the direct result
of an album being scarce — that is to say unavailable on streaming services and
hard to find on illegal downloading sites. The thinking is that if the labels
can make it difficult for customers to find the album anywhere else, they’ll be
more likely to cough up the $9.99 to get it on iTunes or while in line at the
grocery store. Speaking of $9.99, it appears that Target will be selling 1989
(not the Target exclusive deluxe edition, the regular 1989 album) for $9.99 for
November 2-November 22 (the day after Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha
Sapphire for Nintendo 3DS released on November 21) only. Good one Target, let’s
continue.
That theory is lent credence by other scarce albums that
have had huge debuts over the past year, including Beyoncé’s self-titled
surprise album last December (617,000 sold in three days) and Coldplay’s Ghost
Stories this May (383,000 sold in one week), neither of which was released to
Spotify. A year ago, Avril Lavigne released her fifth album without an album’s
title that contains her four singles, Here’s To Never Growing Up, Rock N Roll,
Let Me Go (ft. Chad Kroeger of Nickelback), and Hello Kitty (Avril Lavigne’s
worst song to date) on November 5 going up against Eminem’s new album and
Celine Dion’s 2013 album and the fifth Avril Lavigne album sold poorly with
only less than 200k copies sold in the US selling less Katy Perry’s Prism, Lady
Gaga’s Artpop and Britney Spears’s Britney Jean. This caused bad marketing lost
Avril Lavigne’s number 1 fifth album singles which is driven by poor
promotings, Epic Records, bad singles selections which killed Here’s To Never
Growing Up/Rock N Roll/Let Me Go, the lack of number 1 singles, bratty songs
like Hello Kitty and Martin Johnson. Jennifer Lopez’s number 1 album, AKA, sold
way less than Avril Lavigne’s poorly marketed fifth album which was ruined by
Epic Records/Martin Johnson/bad marketing/poor singles selection/Hello Kitty.
Ditto Mariah Carey’s number 2014 album, This Is Me… I Am Mariah. Good thing
Booty with Iggy Azalea save Jennifer Lopez’s career for her awful AKA sales
which was driven by the US. Ariana Grande’s second number 1 album, My
Everything, sold less than 500k copies in the US after staying at the top 10
for like 2 weeks.
In addition to release-week economics, some artists continue
to argue that streaming services like Spotify don’t pay enough in royalties to
artists for the music that they use. The Black Keys, Thom Yorke, Garth Brooks,
and AC/DC are a few high-profile artists who have abstained from making some or
all of their music available on streaming services.
The Tim McGraw singer hasn’t commented publicly on Spotify’s
royalty rates, but in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal from earlier this
year, she made her feelings clear by listing streaming among factors that have
devalued the music industry.
“Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers
of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow
differently,” she said. And she went on: “Music is art, and art is important
and rare. Important, rare things are valuable… I hope [other artists] don’t
underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”
Without albums by Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Coldplay, and other
big artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Ariana Grande, Demi
Lovato and Carrie Underwood, Spotify could face an existential threat. The
service’s 40 million users have come to expect access to all of the world’s
music, not a second-rate collection with a growing number of prominent holes.
Spotify, meanwhile, has argued that streaming is additive to
music consumption and doesn’t actually cannibalize sales. A source at the
company pointed to Canada’s music industry, which saw a 6% decline in album
sales last year despite being Spotify-free until just last month. That’s not
far behind the Spotify-friendly U.S., which experienced an 8% decline in album
sales last year. Additionally, Spotify points out that songs on streaming
services continue to earn money from fans with each play, while a download
results in a one-time payout to the artist.
So who’s right here? Do the We Are Never Ever Getting Back
Together artist and Big Machine stand to gain more than they lose by
withholding from Spotify? Or, by starving the service in a world that seems
unwilling to pay for albums in a majority of cases, are they sabotaging the
music industry’s last hope? One thing is clear: If you thought the debate over
the viability of music streaming was over, think again. It may have only just
begun.
So why Taylor Swift has just removed all her albums from
Spotify?
A source close to the music service said it was “taken
completely off guard” when it received notice of the move last Thursday.
What We Know So Far:
Taylor Swift has removed all of her albums from Spotify.
The service is trying to get her to change her mind.
The service was also caught “completely off guard” by the
Sparks Fly singer’s decision, which it learned of last Thursday.
The You Belong With Me singer’s label, Big Machine Records,
is reportedly in the process of selling itself for over $200 million.
The Love Story hitmaker’s catalog hasn’t been pulled from
other streaming services, including Rdio and Beats Music.
Fans criticized and praised the singer-songwriter’s
decision.
Why did the Picture To Burn artist remove her music from
Spotify and not Beats Music or Rdio? A source at Spotify comments to BuzzFeed
News: “We actually have users.”
Spotify has caught off guard by the Ours hitmaker’s decision.
A source familiar with Spotify’s negotiations with her label
Big Machine Records told BuzzFeed News that the service was “taken completely
off guard” by the decision to remove the catalog, first learning of the
decision in the middle of last week and receiving a formal notice on Thursday.
The source said there was no rationale given for the removal,
but noted that The Picture To Burn hitmaker’s label, Big Machine, is reportedly
in the process of trying to sell itself for more than $200 million. The label,
founded by music industry veteran Scott Borchetta in 2005, is distributed by
Universal Music Group.
“They think they can get a better sale multiple by creating
scarcity to drive record sales, that’s what this is about,” said the source.
“But they’re only shooting themselves in the foot. Over the long term,
streaming services only add value to catalog records."
Other Big Machine artists, including Florida Georgia Line
and Tim McGraw, remain on Spotify, but the source noted that “it’s no secret
that Taylor Swift is Big Machine and Big Machine is Taylor Swift.”
Good thing Taylor Swift’s music like Mean is still available
on other platforms like Google Play, ITunes, Pandora, and Rdio. Reaction to
Taylor Swift’s decision was mixed.
Taylor Swift has apparently removed all of her albums from
popular music-streaming service Spotify. The move comes as a big blow to the
service, which was already licking its wounds after being cut out of the
rollout last week for the hot female artist’s new album 1989, which is expected
to sell over 1 million copies in its first week on sale.
In a statement posted on Spotify’s website, the company said
it was trying to get her to change her mind:
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.
We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new
music economy that works for everyone. We believe fans should be able to listen
to music wherever and whenever they want, and that artists have an absolute
right to be paid for their work and protected from piracy. That’s why we pay
nearly 70% of our revenue back to the music community.
PS – Taylor, we were both young when we first saw you, but
now there’s more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay. It’s a
love story, baby, just say, Yes.
Also, according to The Spotify Team who made a Spotify Blog
on Spotify, On Taylor Swift’s Decision To Remove Her Music from Spotify.
So what do you think? Do you think Taylor Swift has
apparently removed all of her albums from popular music-streaming service
Spotify? What are your reactions on reaction to Taylor Swift’s decision? Do you
think Taylor Swift removing her music from Spotify is a good thing of a bad
decision? Why do you think she removed her library of songs from Spotify? Sound off below!
