Taylor Swift Launches a World Tour and Disses Spotify in the Same Day

Taylor Swift announced her upcoming world tour for her album 1989 on Monday, briefly causing her website to crash. And in a move only the world’s biggest pop star could pull off, she’s taken all her music off Spotify, prompting the music streaming company to write their own version of a breakup ballad about her.

In a blog post addressing the end of this relationship, Spotify made it clear they’re not ready to let go just yet:

We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone. We believe fans should be able to listen to music wherever and whenever they want, and that artists have an absolute right to be paid for their work and protected from piracy. That’s why we pay nearly 70% of our revenue back to the music community.

PS – Taylor, we were both young when we first saw you, but now there’s more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay. It’s a love story, baby, just say, Yes.

Spotify also created some playlists for her. Desperate much? Perhaps Taylor’s not so impressed with the “new music economy” that Spotify’s creating, given how little money she’s likely been making from it and how famous she is that she doesn’t need them.

Perhaps the writing was on the wall for Taylor and Spotify some time ago; in July, Swift got her byline in the Wall Street Journal when she wrote about the future of music, hinting at a dissatisfaction with what artists are paid for their work:

In recent years, you’ve probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.

Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.

It is clear that Taylor is not undervaluing her art. You can show her you aren’t either by buying tickets to her world tour here.