OK, I”ll say it – I love Taylor Swift.
Before you roll your eyes, consider this: she”s quirky, she”s clever, largely self-made (especially in the early days) and transitioned almost seamlessly from country starlet to full-blow pop diva. I”m sure many would disagree with me on any one of those points, but all signs say that she is a respectable young woman and she has yet to show signs of anything like Britney Spears” 2007 head-shaving incident, so I”d say she”s doing something right.
Perhaps most importantly, her new music is good. I”d go so far as to say it”s really good. “Bad Blood” is addictive, and don”t even get me started on the masterpiece that is “Wildest Dreams.”
Even with all this said, Taylor and I disagree on one tiny detail of her career – her decision to remove her music from the music-streaming app, Spotify.
About a year ago, Swift came out to defend her decision to pull her music off of the popular streaming service.
“I”m always up for trying something “¦ I tried it and I didn”t like the way it felt,” Swift told Time magazine. “I think there should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn”t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.”
To put it simply, Swift feels music-streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora are cheating artists, producers and others who are part of the music industry. While the debate continues, one thing is certain – Swift expects this removal to encourage fans to purchase her music on iTunes, Amazon or in your local CD aisle.
Lyndsie Kiebert
Yes, there is a certain fuzzy feeling when you actually purchase an artist”s album. I have purchased a few iTunes albums or physical CD”s knowing I am supporting the artist as directly as I can. But these albums are by the likes of The Lumineers, Florence + The Machine, or The Head and the Heart – not someone as high-profile as Swift.
The harsh reality is this: When Taylor Swift chose to remove her music from Spotify, the fans looking forward to “1989” as well as those accustomed to listening to all her past albums did not respond to the situation by thinking, “Oh well, I guess it”s time to go purchase the new album on iTunes!”
I, for one, went through the stages of grief.
For a couple days I was in denial. “No way,” I thought. “This is just a publicity stunt. The album will be up any day now.” Three days passed and my denial turned to anger.
“What an entitled brat.” I was thinking. “I just want to add “Shake It off” to my dance tunes playlist.”
I pay for Spotify Premium, so when the country-turned-pop star pulled her music I felt personally victimized. I pay for the service – it”s not like I”m stealing from her. But according to Swift, even the $10 Premium users pay a month is not enough to compensate for her “art.”
I skipped bargaining and depression, and went straight to acceptance – in the form of YouTube browsing. People were already compiling the mp3″s from “1989” and creating playlists on YouTube to mimic the actual album, and this is how I snuck around the inconvenience of Swift”s beef with online streaming.
But others don”t settle for the fairly tiresome act of following a YouTube playlist until it”s torn down for copyright infringements, then finding another to take its place. More commonly, people will pirate the artist”s work.
I by no means condone bootlegging albums from the Internet, but it is a reality Taylor Swift is apparently willing to overlook in hopes of making the revenue she feels the music deserves. When music isn”t readily available on the streaming services that many of us already pay for we are definitely less inclined to purchase Swift”s album on a medium (such as iTunes) that many of us rarely access anymore.
Maybe I”m selfish, or maybe I”m not seeing the whole picture, but regardless of Spotify”s supposed inability to pay artist”s what they feel they deserve, I believe the Swift is only encouraging fans to obtain her music in alternative (sometimes less than legal) ways.
Taylor, come back to Spotify. This isn”t something we can just shake off.
Lyndsie Kiebert can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lyndsie_kiebert