Spotify Debate: Why Taylor Swift Needs to “Shake It Off”
A response to Swift's decision to pull her music off popular music-streaming platform, Spotify
Singer Taylor Swift made headlines in late 2014 for pulling her discography off of the music-streaming platform, Spotify.
“I think there should be an inherent value placed on art,” Swift said in an interview with Time. “I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.”
Swift went onto say that the diminishing numbers of album sales is because no artists are changing the way they put out music and, instead, immediately run to stream their music on platforms like Spotify.
In the interview with Time, Swift is adamant to place importance on the value of her art, instead of the actual money she would receive from it. There is, of course, merit in her statements. We all wish to be valued for the content, information, art, or whatever we contribute to the world, so much so that people would pay for our contributions.
Although she has merit, a flaw in her argument would be that value doesn’t always equate to money. Even though people are paying less or sometimes not at all for music does not mean that they are not listening, especially to an artist as big as Swift with millions of fans worldwide.
Which brings me to my next point: undiscovered musicians. To an artist as big as Swift, sure, it’s no problem to take your music off of Spotify. There will still be about 1.2 million people that pay for your work in its debut week, no less.
However, for the smaller and relatively unknown artists, Spotify is a great way to get your music heard. One could argue that there are still platforms like YouTube, MySpace Music, Twitter, Tumblr to reach new fans. In response to this argument, technology and social media is always changing, so there is always a new way to reach people, and Spotify happens to be one of the latest. Instead of illegally downloading from these social networks, all artists get to expose fans to their music on the service made for music and get 70 percent, said Spotify CEO David Ek, according to a NY Daily News article.
Spotify is also victory for the music lover. Name another app or platform where one can easily access most of one’s favorite music? For students, Spotify offers a 50 percent off discount, which means all the music on Spotify is available to stream and download at half the price with no advertisements. I, personally, think it’s worth the $5 a month.
I think rapper Hoodie Allen said it best in a tweet, “Let's stop pretending Spotify is ruining the music industry in a world where people charge $500 for group picture meet [and] greets…”
Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly
More The Summa News Articles
- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
- Zootopia Movie Review
- The Revenant Movie Review
- Sia's This Is Acting Album Review
Recent The Summa News Articles
Discuss This Article
MOST POPULAR THE SUMMA
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot By Claire Rodriguez
Zootopia Movie Review By Elizabeth Delgado
UST Mock Trial Team Goes Further than Ever Before By Astrid Guevara
GET TOP STORIES DELIVERED WEEKLY
FOLLOW OUR NEWSPAPER
LATEST THE SUMMA NEWS
RECENT THE SUMMA CLASSIFIEDS
OUTSIDE THE LINES
- A Story To Sing About
- The Gap in Gum Care: Why Caring For Your Teeth’s F...
- Top Tips for Signature Scents and Better-Smelling Laundry
- A Dog Trainer’s Top Tips to Support Pets Through Life S...
- Clear the Air of Indoor Pollutants This Spring
- Stroke & Dementia in Black Men: Tips for Staying Healthy...
- Hispanics and African Americans at Higher Risk for Eye...
- African Americans at Higher Risk for Eye Disease
- Infinity Kings: Final Book In A Favorite Fantasy Series
- What You Need To Know About Keratoconus and the iLink...
FROM AROUND THE WEB
- No Child is Forgotten By Marine Toys for Tots
- Sweeten Your Springtime Salads With Healthy Chilean Grapes
- Young Author Translates 4,000-Year-Old Text to Reveal...
- Keeping Cool and Energy-efficient Amid America’s “...
- Addressing Sarcopenia with a Healthy Diet
- Subway’s New Wraps Elevate Eating on the Go
- Family Teacher Conference Topics Beyond Academics
- Youth Take Down Tobacco
- BookTrib’s Bites: Four Reads to Kickoff Spring
- Curbing Colorectal Cancer in Minority Populations
COLLEGE PRESS RELEASES
- Shoff Promotions Comic Book & Sports Card Show
- Semiconductor Research Corp unveils 2024 Research Call, $13.8M Funding
- Charles River Associates Opens Second Scholarship Cycle, Expands to the UK
- BLUMHOUSE AND AMC THEATRES LAUNCH FIRST-EVER HALFWAY TO HALLOWEEN FILM FESTIVAL
- THE GEN Z IMPERATIVE: LISTEN TO FEELINGS AND GIVE GEN Z A VOICE