In a new interview, Taylor Swift has compared her feuds with Spotify and Apple. She again criticized Spotify, calling it a "start-up with no cash flow", while praising Apple for its humble response to her famous open letter.
Taylor Swift had a much publicized feud with the popular streaming service Spotify last year when she famously pulled her chart topping album "1989" from the platform, and wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal criticizing the company for how it compensates artists. Spotify responded on its blog by stating it loves Swift and hopes she changes her mind, but refused to alter its policies and cheekily included several playlists for listeners to enjoy "while Taylor's away."
Swift also wrote an open letter this year to Apple, attacking their artist compensation policy. Swift was outraged that during the three month free trial subscription being offered to users of the service, artists were expected to provide their material for free, without receiving royalties. Swift claims she wrote that letter at four in the morning and showed it to only one person, her mother, prior to posting it.
"I wrote the letter at around four A.M.," she said. "The contracts had just gone out to my friends, and one of them sent me a screenshot of one of them. I read the term 'zero percent compensation to rights holders.' Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I'll write a song and I can't sleep until I finish it, and it was like that with the letter."
Apple, in contrast to Spotify, famously capitulated almost immediately after the letter was posted, agreeing to provide compensation for artists while using their material during the three month promotional period. Apple's reversal was in fact so quick, that many internet users accused Swift and Apple of concocting the entire thing as a publicity stunt to promote Apple Music.
Swift takes the opportunity to praise Apple for its humble response, while taking another shot at Spotify. "Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about. And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine."
