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FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, that Taylor Swift was
wrong. The reigning queen of country-tinged
pop shocked fans in 2014 by abruptly and
publicly breaking up with a prominent suitor:
Spotify. Mere days after the October release of
her album 1989 , Swift yanked her entire back
catalog from the leading music-streaming ser-
vice—and made a compelling case why Spotify
was a threat to her industry.
“I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment
that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, art-
ists, and creators of this music,” Swift said at the time, taking a
swipe at Spotify’s so-called freemium business model. “And I just
don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no
value and should be free.”
Swift’s bold move won her acclaim from recording artists
around the world who believed that streaming music services
were cutting into their already meager bottom lines. After all,
revenues for recorded music had been falling for a decade and a
half thanks to plummeting CD sales. Spotify cofounder and CEO
Daniel Ek countered by publishing a lengthy essay defending his
company. (“All the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify
is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big-time,” he
wrote.) And Swift’s scheme proved to be a triumph once the re-
ceipts rolled in. Named America’s highest-earning musician that
year by Billboard, Swift went on to sell a million copies a week ofT HE FU TURE 50 —SPOTIF Y
With more than 48 million
monthly listeners,
pop singer Ariana Grande
was Spotify’s most-
streamed female artist
last year.