Spotify has released a statement directed towards Taylor Swift, telling the singer that they “love” her after she decided to remove her music from the streaming service.
The ‘Shake It Off’ singer previously stated that streaming services such as Spotify “undervalue art,” before she removed access to all of her albums and singles from the platform. Spotify responded by releasing a statement that reads: “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.
Insert ‘Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together’ joke here.
“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.”
The statement concluded rather embarrassingly, with the Spotify team writing: “PS – 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.”
This is not the first time Spotify has come under fire from musicians. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has been one of the most outspoken opponents of Spotify and its ilk, as he and the band continue to find new ways to release their music to the public – Yorke’s last solo LP Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes was released in partnership with BitTorrent, with users able to download it through the controversial torrent service.
Musicians make just fractions of a cent from each time their songs are played on Spotify, and with the service making a huge impact on the music industry in general, artists are therefore revolting. Taylor Swift joins the ranks of Yorke, Adele and The Black Keys who have all refused to feature their music on the platform.
