Following Taylor Swift's controversial music removal from Spotify, her YouTube views (including her Vevo channel) doubled within the first week. As reported by Mashable, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 9, Swift went from approximately 12.5 million daily views to just short of 24 million views. By Nov. 16, Swift had reached 35 million daily views, receiving an extra bump from the release of the song "Blank Space" on Nov. 10.
Despite the increase in YouTube plays, Swift still sold 1.287 million copies of her most recent album, "1989," during its first week of sales, reaching 2 million purchases after three weeks. In an interview with Yahoo! Music, Swift explained her reasoning for departing from Spotify:
"All I can say is that music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment. And I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music. And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the removal of Swift's catalogue, writing, "We started Spotify because we love music and piracy was killing it. So all the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big time." Ek noted that artists like Swift could earn $6 million per year from Spotify, but Swift's team reported back that she had received less than $500,000 through the previous 12 months.
For more details on Swift's big YouTube boom, and an approximation of the return she can expect from the platform, head over to Mashable.
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