In the ongoing feud between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, it's becoming increasingly clear that there's no real winner. While Taylor has shaded Katy in interview after interview, her diss track 'Bad Blood' was miles more successful than Katy's recent attempt 'Swish Swish'; even though Katy is coming out on top just by discussing the feud and her limited part in it so openly. And in her latest move, Taylor's continuing to cut off her nose to spite her face, assuring mutually assured destruction for both parties with no one a winner.
You'll remember that Taylor has been notoriously anti-Spotify and anti-streaming for a while, ever since she penned an open letter to the company back in November of 2014 on the eve of her 1989 album release. Back then, she told Yahoo:
QuoteAll I can say is that music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment. And I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music.
Since then, she's held firm against Spotify and even attacked Apple Music on its launch for not reimbursing artists who had their music listened to during a free trial period (Swift has since appeared in ads for Apple, suggesting the two are back on good terms). Despite the begging of her fans and a "love letter" Spotify wrote to her to win her back, Swift had apparently decided that she was better than streaming services; and judging by her net revenue last year, she wasn't wrong.
But all that changed on Thursday night when TaylorNation, the Instagram page representing Swift's management team, made the following post:
The significance of this won't be lost on Katy Perry fans, who'll know that for the past few months the newly cropped popstar has been teasing the release of her album Witness. Witness was released on exactly the same day, at exactly the same time as Taylor decided to revive her music on streaming services.
And to rub salt in the wound even more, Swift later announced that all of her albums would be available for a reduced rate on iTunes, clearly in the hopes that a discount would help her albums outnumber Katy's new one in the pop charts.
On the one hand, it's true that the RIAA did announce Swift's milestone just twelve hours before the post was made. On the other hand, it's an extremely unlikely coincidence that Swift's team just happened to organise for every single streaming platform to re-add Perry's music in just twelve hours. And its even more unlikely that none of Swift's handlers would have known about Katy's album release, especially given how much Katy's been talking about Taylor this album cycle.
What are your thoughts on Swift's latest move? Is it an savvy power play, an obvious and petty trick or nothing but sheer coincidence? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.