Taylor Swift's Never-Ending Streaming Battle

It was announced today that Taylor Swift's long-awaited sixth album, Reputation, will be held off of streaming services for at least one week after its release on Friday. This is in the hopes that fans will purchase a physical or digital copy instead, which generates more royalties for artists than streams.

There's a couple things wrong with this strategy (in my humble opinion):

1) Taylor is neglecting the fact that we live in a streaming world now, whether she likes it or not...based on her history, I'm assuming she doesn't. Sure, her hardcore fans will shell out the money to buy an album - but what about us casual listeners? I like Taylor's music (or at least used to) and would happily listen were it conveniently available on Spotify. However I'm not a big enough fan to actually purchase it, especially when I don't even know if I'll like it (and, if it's anything like the four tracks she already released, I probably won't). Listeners like me are all placed in the same boat, causing Taylor to miss out on a large streaming audience, which also means a missed opportunity for monetization. And let's not forget about the general public - Spotify alone has over 140 million users. I'm sure Taylor's album would be featured on all of the top playlists and have a large display on any service's homepage, which would allow for even more $$$.

2) Seven months ago, Universal Music Group, which is Taylor's distributor, signed a contract with Spotify allowing its artists to window their new album releases exclusively on the premium tier. Taylor is pretty much doing exactly the opposite of what this deal intended, and doesn't seem fair to Spotify.

3) Taylor is coming across as shady; first, she criticized Spotify and Apple Music for not paying artists enough. Apple Music then obediently changed their system in response to Princess Taylor's complaint and her music returned, but Spotify remained shut out. Then, Taylor "coincidentally" decided to return her entire catalog to the platform at the same time her rival and known-enemy, Katy Perry, released an album in June. It finally seemed like this whole "Taylor vs. Streaming" battle was over, but it seems we've returned, and something about it doesn't feel quite right.

This isn't the first time Taylor Swift has acted as a controversial player in the music business, and it certainly won't be the last. We all know that whatever she does, she'll still pull off a #1 album anyway.