Taylor Swift is refusing to put her most recent album, “1989,” on Apple’s upcoming music streaming service.
Taylor Swift has previously been an outspoken critic of free music streaming. She argues that it “devalues artists’ work”, and she removed “1989” from market-leader Spotify late last year following a dispute over its free, ad-supported tier.
It had previously been thought that Swift’s album would be available on Apple Music, which is due to launch on June 30. implying that Apple had secured the rights to her recent catalog. But, clearly that is not the case.
A representative for Swift’s label, Big Machine, said “there are currently no plans to release ‘1989’ to any streaming service in the near future.” Apple also confirmed that the album would not be present at launch.
Apple is entering the music-streaming race very late and partly out of necessity. While it has long dominated the music-download market via iTunes, downloads are now in decline. Rival Spotify has managed to gain a staggering 86% of the on-demand-streaming market. Apple needs to launch Apple Music to remain relevant in the music industry (which is also why it is launching on Android and Windows, to ensure the maximum possible number of users).
