Music Biz: Taylor Swift Sells ‘Eras Tour’ Concert Film Rights to Disney+ !!

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dumped Spotify

a_560x375.jpg


It's been one week since Taylor Swift released 1989, already the biggest-selling album of 2014, with Billboard predicting that she's moved 1.3 million copies. As of last Thursday, she already sold 727,000 LPs via iTunes, Target, and Walmart alone, an astronomical figure in a year when nobody else has dropped a record that's sold a million, period. That, on top of her just-announced 2015 world tour, means her net worth, which we estimated at around $195 million before 1989, is going to get a whole lot bigger very quickly.

With that kind of income, it's puzzling to some fans that not only did Swift neglect to stream 1989 on Spotify, she removed her entire back catalogue from the service earlier today. While it's not uncommon for popular artists to keep their latest albums off the service in the short-term — as of now, Beyoncé's self-titled 2013 album and the Black Keys' Turn Blue aren't available in full — few acts have completely denied Spotify access to their material.

The Beatles, Garth Brooks, Bob Seger, and AC/DC are some of the most notable holdouts, though none of them have done a 180 and taken all of their songs down. (And all came of money-making age in a very different paradigm.) So why did Taylor do it? It's a combination of business savvy, a bit of a "don't tell me what to do" hardball, and a dash of protest.

On the financial end, Swift's megastar power gives her the freedom to flip a proverbial bird at anyone she feels isn't properly compensating her. A reported 71 percent of the sales of 2012's Red were physical copies, an astonishing amount in today's iTunes-dominated era. The financial details of her royalty rates are unknown, but sales of that volume will bring her a lot more dough than Spotify's average payout rate of "between $0.006 and $0.0084" per stream. Many Spotify users don't pay a dime to stream the albums, settling to listen to ads instead, while a premium user of the service pays $9.99 a month for no commercials and the ability to store songs, albums, and playlists offline. Swift, meanwhile, is selling a deluxe edition of 1989 with bonus tracks and goodies exclusively at Target for $13.99 a pop. Days ago, she'd already sold 247,000 copies there for a gross of $3,455,530. If there were that many streams for all of 1989's 13 tracks at Spotify's highest payout rate, she'd get $26,972.40. Pocket-change.

Fans and critics alike have characterized Swift as brazen — or worse — for the move, but the 24-year-old has already positioned herself as a star who stands up for the ones who shine less brightly (or lucratively). "Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for," she wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last July.

"It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art." This is a generous statement, to be sure, but it also helps Swift establish her creative-person bona fides — she’s not just a pop star, you see, she's an artist, too.

With digital sales falling (the RIAA reported an 11 percent decrease in digital singles sales for the first half of 2014) and streaming becoming the easier, cheaper alternative to both buying music or illegally downloading it, Spotify and their cohorts have no small amount of leverage over artists and labels at the moment. But perhaps Spotify overplayed its hand with comments criticizing Taylor's decision to keep 1989 off their servers. "There are over 40 million music fans on Spotify and Taylor Swift has nearly 2 million active followers on the service who will be disappointed by this decision," spokesman Graham James told Time. This is not how you make nice, Spotify.

Already, Spotify has pivoted, releasing a statement that ends with the lines, "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."

Perhaps Spotify underestimated the 24-year-old's backbone. If only they'd ponied up the $1.29 and paid for a copy of her next single, "Blank Space" — they would've realized that, when it comes to love and royalties, she's a nightmare dressed like a daydream.
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Spotify begs Taylor Swift to return to streaming service with 'we love you' playlist

Taylor Swift has removed her entire catalogue from the Spotify streaming service after arguing that musicians should not "undervalue their art" by letting fans listen to their songs for free.

Swift's new album 1989 is on course to sell more than 1.3m copies, breaking the record for the biggest-ever album weekly sales by a female artist.

Swift had withheld the album from Spotify and other streaming services, a move which helped maximise full-price CD and iTunes download sales.

But the star has now pulled her entire back catalogue off Spotify, a move which has annoyed fans who accused the country-pop singer of being "greedy".

Swift, 24, who announced a headline British Summer Time Hyde Park concert next June, had previously withheld her 2012 album Red from Spotify in the weeks after its release.

She criticised the streaming model - Spotify pays out an average of $0.007 per song play – in a Wall Street Journal article this year.

"It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is," Swift wrote. "I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art."

Spotify teased Swift, posting a playlist especially for her, and urged the singer to return. "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," the post read.

"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."

Swift's withdrawal is likely to help her break Britney Spears' record 1.3m sales of her 2000 album, Oops! … I Did It Again. 1989 is on course for the largest US sales week for any album since 2002, when Eminem sold 1.322 million copies of The Eminem Show.

Swift is one of the few artists to buck a global collapse in album sales since Britney Spears' heyday. The music industry is banking on streaming to replace full-price album sales, with Spotify having signed up more than 10 million paid subscribers and 40 million users.

But Swift's loyal fanbase was disappointed that they could no longer listen to her on Spotify. One tweeted: "Why is Taylor Swift removing all of her music from Spotify? It's not exactly hurting her album sales obviously...So greedy."

Others pointed out that her music could still be streamed on YouTube, which pays out less in royalties than Spotify, where unauthorised versions of an artists' music often competes with official videos.

http://bcove.me/nltfuon3

http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-taylor-swift-the-future-of-music-is-a-love-story-1404763219
 

largebillsonlyplease

Large
BGOL Legend
Good Fuck them make your money

so either they increase her royalties or they don't have any taylor swift. she doesn't need you like the other artists who are trying to be discovered do.
 

LSN

Phat booty lover.
BGOL Investor
idk why but I been turned on by this skinny ass bitch as of late...she's just so goody-goody I wanna fuck the shit out of her asshole and I'm not even into that shit
 

PeerlessMack

Been here longer than you think!
Platinum Member
Some say she may be the last artist ever whose physical album sales goes platinum at launch.
 

GAMETHEORY

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Taylor Swift's parents and grandparents are millionaire bankers. That's why she always looks so smug. She is not some struggling musician looking for a break.
 

bgbtylvr

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Only people with limited appeal and/or shitty careers need to worry AS much about sites like this. There are still people i like and buy their shit, and others who tend to only put out one good song on an album, so i DL their shit with no issues. If i like you, i support you. If you drop whack shit with the occasional hit then fuck yuh! I bought Hidden Colors simply because of his grind. Copped Ledisi after i saw her in concert recently. I DL all that whack as Third coast Slim Thug shit for the beats. LOL!
 

HAR125LEM

Rising Star
Platinum Member
As much as I initially couldn't stand this chick, she always continues to impress me with her music business sense.

And I've started to see her in a different light because of it. Lyrically she has a lot to say. But I still have issues with the over-produced Pop music arrangements of her songs.

I really feel that as she matures creatively, she's going to end up being the "Joni Mitchell" of her generation. Though not in that low-key aspect that Mitchell is (in)famous for.

And like someone else here said...

There's something about this skinny, no-ASS Chick that I find attractive. I just have no idea what Da Fuck it is.

And I'm WAY out of her age bracket.
 

Silencer

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Damn...I knew albums didn't sell anymore, but I guess I didn't realize how bad it was when almost NOBODY can sell a million albums. I mean think about it: Whodini did that shit back in the day...:lol:
 

dabushwackers

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Fuck that CAC bgol lets do what we do best post the link to that bitches album in the music section if it ain't there already:lol::lol:
 

J.E.T.S

Rising Star
Registered
Taylor Swift's parents and grandparents are millionaire bankers. That's why she always looks so smug. She is not some struggling musician looking for a break.
Bitch been rich all her life. White people buy their shit and I can only imagine the loads of teenage besties riding around in their Volkswagen Beetle while steering wheel drumming to her. "Omg Taylor is sooooo fuckin' awesome.. Yah! Yah! Yah!!"

:hmm: fuck these cacs. I ain't happy for her the least bit. :thefinger:
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/175364962%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-Ekg5n&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false"></iframe>​
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Taylor Swift's parents and grandparents are millionaire bankers. That's why she always looks so smug. She is not some struggling musician looking for a break.

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a Merrill Lynch financial adviser. Scott was raised in Pennsylvania and is the descendant of three generations of bank presidents. Her mother, Andrea (née Finlay), is a homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/10/you-belong-with-me?currentPage=all

Taylor Swift's Parents Are Assholes

According to Page Six, Taylor Swift's mother and father are behind-the-scenes monsters, described by a source as being "difficult and controlling stage parents." There are a number of reasons why this isn't surprising.

For one, Swift's parents were more elemental in her career than most. When Swift was 14, the family moved from Pennsylvania to Nashville so that she could pursue a career in country music. A Rolling Stone profile from a few years ago said that Swift "persuaded" her parents to relocate, but the exact story is kind of irrelevant: any couple willing to move halfway across the country so a kid can pursue music stardom will obviously have a great deal of investment in her subsequent career. (It was a good bet, obviously.)

That Rolling Stone story also describes her parents—Scott and Andrea, who, according to Page Six, have been living separately for years—as having "business backgrounds," which is as true as calling them "humans." Scott Kingsley Swift is a wealth management advisor and senior vice president at Merrill Lynch, who runs a subset of the firm called The Swift Group from the company's Nashville office. (His official company bio notes that his daughter "Taylor is a four-time Grammy winner and CMA Entertainer of the Year.") He also lists a number of entertainment ventures—Swift Merchandising, Firefly Entertainment—on his Finra broker check and was an early investor in Big Machine, the fledgling label that first released Swift's music. (Andrea, whose father was an oilman, likewise worked at a mutual fund before leaving to become a stay-at-home mom.)

As rich people with deep personal and familial histories in finance, it's almost pro forma that Swift's parents are accused of having alienated top employees at her management company, as well as various agents and other industry figures, including Swift's longtime publicist. "Taylor's parents are extremely difficult to deal with," says a Page Six source, and also everyone about basically anyone who has ever ascended to the top of the finance industry.

But the least shocking part about Swift's parents is that they see themselves as different than others who might be fortunate to be in her orbit. "They want to pay as little as possible and treat people like shit," someone said to Page Six. "Because they think those people are lucky to have the chance to work with a superstar like Taylor."
 

john blackcorn

Rising Star
Registered
everybody says technology changed the music business.but as much as u can say technology changed it u can say entitlement changed it too. people feel like their entitled to free music since its so easily obtained. motherfuckers wont walk inside walmart and steal a cd, but will gladly go and google a download link to the album they want. and fans dont realize that theres alot that goes into making an album. and there are people who like to be compensated for their work. royalties, licensing, etc... and its taking away from all that when people download music for free/ not to say that u can make a great living in the music industry anymore. because u can. especially if you are an artist that tours. but for the people behind the scenes its different. we cant eat off album sales alone anymore. u better be trying to get your shit on tv show, commercials, and in films

this move by taylor swift is a step inthe right direction and hopefully others follow. the people who really need to do some shit like this are live bands who play and write their own music. that would really be saying something to me
 

TheAlias

Rising Star
BGOL Patreon Investor
Has she thanked Kanye for jump starting her career yet?

I swear I never heard of this bitch before that MTV incident.
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Has she thanked Kanye for jump starting her career yet?

I swear I never heard of this bitch before that MTV incident.

he's right you know...

she left all that country music alone and went strictly straight for that pop audience after that
 

Djmarkxr7

OG BGOL'er
Registered
Some say she may be the last artist ever whose physical album sales goes platinum at launch.

I pointed out in the thread that said there were NO platinum albums dropped this year that hers would be the FIRST, this chick has phenomenal staying power, every time she drops an album it's top 3 for the next year and a half almost, in these times that's an outstanding track record!!!:cool:
 

Djmarkxr7

OG BGOL'er
Registered
Has she thanked Kanye for jump starting her career yet?

I swear I never heard of this bitch before that MTV incident.

he's right you know...

she left all that country music alone and went strictly straight for that pop audience after that



Stop it!!!

Ya'll hadn't heard of her because ya'll weren't trying to listen to her music, she already had two big crossover hits with "Love Story" & "You Belong to Me" and was already making her move over to pop music before the Kanye West incident, but Kanye DEFINITELY put her on the map as far as Black people are concerned, I knew of her already because of a couple of corporate events I did prior to the MTV Awards, her music just had a catchy feel to it!
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Stop it!!!

Ya'll hadn't heard of her because ya'll weren't trying to listen to her music, she already had two big crossover hits with "Love Story" & "You Belong to Me" and was already making her move over to pop music before the Kanye West incident, but Kanye DEFINITELY put her on the map as far as Black people are concerned, I knew of her already because of a couple of corporate events I did prior to the MTV Awards, her music just had a catchy feel to it!

that's all we saying
 

REDLINE

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Stop it!!!

Ya'll hadn't heard of her because ya'll weren't trying to listen to her music, she already had two big crossover hits with "Love Story" & "You Belong to Me" and was already making her move over to pop music before the Kanye West incident, but Kanye DEFINITELY put her on the map as far as Black people are concerned, I knew of her already because of a couple of corporate events I did prior to the MTV Awards, her music just had a catchy feel to it!

She won video of the year at the MTV awards. That's great that Kanye put her on the map so that Black people know she is but we as Black people aren't buying our on music. So realistically speaking if we're not buy ours we're definitely not buying hers. I say all of this to say, she doesn't give a shit if Black people know who she is.
 
Top