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This month Taylor Swift made her music available on Spotify, Pandora and other music services again after pulling it two-and-a-half years ago, because she didn’t believe the streaming services were paying artists enough for their work.
Getting revenge on long-time nemesis Katy Perry might have been reason enough for Taylor to return to Spotify et al, but it may also have been a commercial decision.
Billboard has crunched the numbers a couple of weeks after Tay’s return and the estimated profit Swift has made is staggering: her songs, which include her entire back catalogue have been streamed 47.5 million times in the US alone, resulting in a generation of around US $397,000, or AUD $530,000.
Revenge on Katy Perry and an epic pay day? Taylor must be thrilled right now.
It’s not exactly clear why the Shake It Off singer chose now to return her albums to music streaming services – apart from trying to overshadow Perry on the day of her Witness album release, of course.
One reason might be that Taylor is expected to drop a new album towards the end of the year, and the buzz around her music returning to Spotify could re-engage fans and the public with her music in the lead up.
The streaming market has also changed in the two-and-a-half years since Taylor pulled the plug in 2014, generating much more revenue than it was previously.
It’s not known whether Taylor’s reported plans to launch her own music streaming service are still in the works. TMZ reported that Swift filed trademarks to launch an online service that will offer her own music and content, a website that would “feature non-downloadable multi-media content in the nature of audio recordings.”
