Taylor Swift breaks up with Spotify

Global Business

The popular online music provider Spotify got a jolt this week when musician Taylor Swift removed all her music, including her number one hit “Shake it Off” from the song-streaming service.

The company responded with a post on its blog that said: “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.”

It’s likely Swift pulled her music because musicians are paid fractions of a penny for every play on Spotify. Even with highest pay percentage the company offers, .0084 cents, 16 million plays would only net Swift $134,400. Meanwhile at $1.29 per song on iTunes, those number of plays could be worth more than $20 million.

Despite this move, streaming remains more popular than ever. In the first half of this year, music and radio services like Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius XM and Youtube, grew 28 percent to $859 million, more than one-fourth of the revenue for the entire music industry. Streaming’s popularity however, has led to a drop in traditional music sales and digital downloads. Physical music sales, almost entirely CDs and vinyl records, were down 14 percent this year. Digital downloads, such as those on iTunes, have also declined 12 percent from a year ago.

CCTV America interviewed Imani Cheers, an assistant professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University to learn more about changes in the music industry.


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