Taylor Swift fans, rejoice! On June 9, 2017, at midnight, the entire catalog of Taylor's music was put back onto all streaming services, including Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, and Pandora. This move by Swift and her team seemed to come out of nowhere for many fans of hers, but is there really more to the story than meets the eye?
Back in 2014, Taylor had taken all of her music off of streaming services, with the exception of Apple Music, due to how these services paid the artists. Swift stated that she felt that streaming was nothing but a "grand experiment", Swift stayed with Apple Music after it agreed to pay the artists during the free three-month trial that was offered to its users.
However, on June 8, Swift's management put on her official fan Instagram, taylornation, that "In celebration of 1989 selling over 10 million albums worldwide and the RIAA's 100 million song certification announcement, Taylor wants to thank her fans by making her entire back catalog available to all streaming services tonight at midnight."
There are two main reasons that Swift's return may be happening now. The first being on the more business and financial side of things. Her fight was never with Spotify specifically, but rather it was a fight with the entire streaming industry, as she wanted to have fair compensation for all musical artists. She was bound to surrender her fight sooner or later, however, as streaming is not slowing down anytime soon, and has become a powerhouse in the music industry.
The other reason could be that Katy Perry's new album "Witness" came out on the same day. Many people were quick to point this out, as the two artists have a history of a feud. This being known, it seems painfully obvious that this fact played a large part in why Swift chose this time to release all of her music back onto streaming services. This move takes a lot of the hype away from Katy Perry and brings Swift back into the limelight. It's an amazingly petty move, but I personally love it. What better way to upstage someone's new single album then putting your entire album catalog out?
The question still arises, however, of "What does this mean for the music industry?" Swift was one of the main artists fighting for fair compensation for musical artists on streaming services, so have these companies finally come to a fair pricing? Or is Swift realizing that even if the pay isn't the best, she will still be making a lot of money while having her music on these sites?
Regardless of her true reasoning, this move by Taylor Swift and her team is a genius way to bring her back into the spotlight. Personally, I had almost forgotten about her, as I listen to all of my music on Spotify and other services, so by not having her music on that platform, I had no way of finding her music in a convenient way. Having heard the news of her return to streaming, however, all of a sudden I needed to listen to all of her music, even though I hadn't really been a fan of hers for a few years now. This also makes me think that there could be a new album on the horizon.
