On MONDAY (NET NEWS 11/3), ALL ACCESS told you that on the same day TAYLOR SWIFT announced plans for a world tour in support of her new “1989” album and hours before expected record-setting sales figures for her latest project are due, BIG MACHINE RECORDS instructed SPOTIFY to remove her entire catalog from its subscription streaming service.
BIG MACHINE Pres. /CEO SCOTT BORCHETTA has long been a vocal critic of streaming services such as SPOTIFY, saying on more than one occasion, to different publications that the streaming business model is, “A race to the bottom. ”
Now, TIME is writing SWIFT’s spurning of SPOTIFY and rejecting the streaming business model is “a losing bet. ”
SWIFT famously penned an op-ed in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL earlier this year, explaining “piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently.” SWIFT continued, “music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. ItÃ