After being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, pop star Taylor Swift has another achievement to cap off 2023: she’s the first artist to earn more than $100 million from Spotify, according to Billboard Magazine. Spotify listeners played her music more than any other artist this year. The streaming giant released its Wrapped analysis on Nov. 29, showing Swift’s songs were streamed more than 26 billion times since Jan. 1, 2023. Through Spotify, those streams rack up $97 million in royalties, with the busy singer on track to earn $100 million by the end of December. If you include publishing revenue, the ubiquitous “Lavender Haze” artist is estimated to receive about $131 million in royalties from Spotify this year. However, this is from one streaming platform alone. Billboard estimates that her total earnings this year will approach $200 million if recording and publishing royalties from other streaming services like Amazon Music, Apple Music, and YouTube Music are also included. Thanks to Swift re-recording her “Taylor’s Version” of four albums, Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989, she has the master rights to all her music. That means most of that $200 million will go into her bank account, which is in good shape already, thanks to the $1 billion grossed by her Eras tour. Scooter Braun, Scott Borchetta, and Taylor Swift: What Happened? Swift signed with Big Machine Music and its founder Scott Borchetta when she was 15. She tried to earn back the rights to her master recordings for years. Then, in 2019, Ithaca Holdings, which record executive Scooter Braun owns, acquired Big Machine. To put it lightly, she was not pleased to have her masters in the hands of Braun, whom she called an, “incessant, manipulative bully” in her Tumblr post. So, because her master recordings — that is, the original recording from which all copies are made — were now owned by someone she didn’t like, she set out to re-record and re-release all her albums as new recordings. By doing so, she now wholly owns all the new masters and completely controls her songs. So far, she has created her own “Taylor’s Version” of four of her six albums. The albums Taylor Swift and Reputation are still in the works. Swift has changed some lyrics and the sound of several songs on her re-recorded albums. She also released several songs not released on the original albums, including the tearjerker “We Were Happy.” Perhaps the step that generated the most attention was releasing a 10-minute version of one of her saddest songs, “All Too Well,” which also included a short film music video starring actors Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink. Fans have responded positively to the renewed albums. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) actually performed better than the original release, according to Vulture. Taylor Swift + Spotify Hasn’t Always Been a “Love Story” Although she’s now earning millions from her devoted fans’ streams on Spotify and other music streaming platforms, Swift’s relationship with the platform hasn’t always been cordial. In fact, in 2014, her then-label Big Machine Music removed all of her music from the platform entirely. At the time, music labels were pivoting from selling music downloads to charging for access to streaming music. Many took issue with the fact that Spotify users could listen to the music they owned free of charge through the app. According to Rolling Stone, Spotify told artists and labels at the time that the royalties would get better once more people started paying for the app’s premium version. The platform said it paid out $500 million in royalties in 2013, compared to $ 5 billion in 2020 and $7 billion in 2021. That said, artists continue to say their pay from the major streaming services is inadequate. For the record, Spotify doesn’t pay out directly to artists. The platform pays the artists’ distributors, labels, etc., who then pay the artists. The outcry has led to efforts to introduce a fairer system. In 2022, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., introduced House Concurrent Resolution 102, recognizing the need for fairer compensation for artists’ labor. The resolution notes that it requires 800,000 streams for an artist to make the equivalent of $15 an hour. In November, Spotify announced it is updating its royalties system “to better support those most dependent on streaming revenues as part of their livelihood.” The changes target artificial streams and noise tracks aiming to game the system and redistribute small payments that aren’t reaching artists. By making these changes, Spotify says it will be able to drive an additional $1 billion toward emerging artists and smaller artists in the next five years. Eras Tour Traditions Swift may be famous for her lyrics that draw from her love life, but her Eras Tour has sparked a friendship-based activity for attendees: creating and trading handmade friendship bracelets. Fans showed off their arms stacked with bracelets before Swift’s concerts on the 52-show tour of the United States. The craze may have drawn inspiration from an Instagram post Swift shared in 2019, or perhaps from the lyrics of the song “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” encouraging the listener to make friendship bracelets. This article was produced by Orchestra Central and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
