By Nadia Ahmad |Staff Writer|
Taylor Swift made a bold move when she removed all of her albums from Spotify on Nov. 3.
No one really knows why, but many believe that it is due to Spotify’s low royalty rates to artists.
Swift recently wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, voicing her opinion against streaming services and said, “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free.”
Spotify is a legal music streaming service and app that allows users to access albums from almost any artist, all in one place.
The pop sensation released her newest album, 1989, on Oct. 27, which has already sold over a million copies, making Swift the first artist this year to have a platinum record.
Many artists hold off on releasing their albums to Spotify the first week or so of an album’s release to encourage fans to go out and purchase their music.
Swift had done this with her previous album, Red, so fans expected her to do the same with her new album.
Fans waited for Swift to release her new album on Spotify. No one expected her to take down all of her music.
Many are outraged and disagree with Swift’s argument, because many Spotify users pay a membership fee.
CSUSB student Amanda Moore says,
“I pay for Spotify premium, I’m not stealing music or downloading it illegally.”
Spotify pays nearly 70% of their revenue back to the music community, but an artist on Spotify will make about a cent per play, on average.
Spotify released a statement saying, “Our service and the lives of artists will both be best if the world’s music fans enjoy more music than ever before in a legal, paid manner.”
In my opinion, file sharing and streaming services are likely the future of the music industry, and services like Spotify need to be willing to pay more to the artists.
Premium Spotify users, who pay a monthly fee, have unlimited access to music you want, while still supporting some of your favorite artists.
Using a service like this is safe, convenient, and legal.
Spotify has asked Swift to release her music back on their service, and has enlisted the help of ‘Swifties’ everywhere.
To aid in their efforts, they have even made a playlist on the service titled, “Come Back, Taylor!”
Fans have been ranting and begging on social media for the return of Swift and her music with the hashtag #justsayyes.
It’s going to take much more than just hashtags and cute playlists to bring the highly acclaimed pop artist back.
In my opinion, Swift is trying to send a message that artists deserve more money for their music, and my guess is that Spotify will soon be paying a lot more than just one cent per play to their artists.
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