On that same date, Taylor Swift's major label debut album was nearly a full year away (it would hit the world on October 24th, 2006.) Since that time, Swift has released 4 more studio albums that have hit #1 on the Billboard chart, sold over 40 million albums across the globe and she has topped 130 million digital downloads of her songs. She has also toured nearly non-stop, selling out venues everywhere and anywhere that hosts artists. Merkel has chaired the G8, and in 2013 was named the world's most powerful woman by Forbes magazine.
However, for all she has done, nothing that Merkel has done in her long career can compete with what Swift did this week, without even releasing a new album.
Earlier this month, Apple announced that they would be jumping in to the streaming music business, launching 24 hour a day radio stations that would allow for paid subscribers and 'free accounts'. The new venture is scheduled to start on June 30th, and to garner attention and subscribers, Apple announced new users would receive the service for 'free' for 3 months. What was not as widely publicized was the fact that Apple also would not pay artists for their music that they played.
Enter Taylor Swift, who took umbridge with this maneuver by Apple. She penned an open letter to Apple stating her decision to not allow her latest release, 1989, to be part of Apple's streaming service, because she felt it would unfairly deprive artists, in particular new or less 'famous' artists of revenue. She noted that with 5 studio albums in hand, along with a world tour, she is more than able to pay her bills and tuck money away for a rainy day, but new artists could not afford such a period of time without being paid. She closed her letter by stating:
We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.Back in 1994, one of the biggest musical acts in the world, Pearl Jam, launched a campaign against ticketmaster due to what they felt were unfair practices by the ticket seller. There were campaigns, Congressional hearings, and Pearl Jam even staged their own short-lived tour all to no avail, but a year and a half later, Ticketmaster crushed Pearl Jam, and there has been no substantive movement against them in the nearly 20 years since.
I first saw Swift's letter yesterday (06-21-2015.) Less than 24 hours later, Apple changed course, and precisely as Swift asked them to do, announced that they would pay artists per stream, even during the promotional period. This is a huge victory for struggling artists, and puts Swift squarely in the driver's seat for the title "Most Powerful Woman in the World". The next time Merkel takes down an $800 Billion behemoth in under 500 words, she can feel free to re-apply for the title. Until such time, it's Swift's.
