Talk about messy breakups. This Taylor Swift and Spotify situation is getting ugly. Spotify claimed recently that Taylor Swift was on track to make $6 million, but in Time cover story her label’s CEO Scott Borchetta reported she only made $496,044 from the domestic streams.
Borchetta explained the reason Swift pulled her music was to make a point about how it harms musicians. “The facts show that the music industry was much better off before Spotify hit these shores. Don’t forget this is for the most successful artist in music today. What about the rest of the artists out there struggling to make a career? Over the last year, what Spotify has paid is the equivalent of less than 50,000 albums sold.”
Spotify counters claiming they paid $2 million to the people who held the rights of Swift’s music in the past ear. Jonathan Prince – global head of communications and public policy – told Time they paid her label and publisher “roughly half a million dollars” in the months before she took her music off Spotify. Prince goes on to say she would’ve earned more with the success of 1989.
It seems like this will never end as both Swift’s team and Spotify go back and forth. What do you think about Taylor Swift pulling her music? All these numbers are being shouted out, but they can’t all be right. Do you think someone is exaggerating or lying? Time will tell.
Have you read our cover story yet on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith.
