In an article in the Washington Post, Emily Yahr describes several research projects studying Taylor Swift and her fans as a sociological phenomenon. I am not sure that I too am “majoring in Taylor Swift,” but I have become interested in her music and story recently, when before I would have just poo-poohed her as a pop star for tween girls.
What changed my mind at first was when Ms. Swift took on Apple Corporation. As someone who has used Apple products since 1981, it is an outfit I know something about, and as the FBI learned, they are not easily cowed. But when Apple first released their music streaming service, now Apple Music, they had decided that they didn’t need to pay musicians a royalty for the first three months after the service went live.
After all, they’re Apple.
They backed down
Enter Ms. Swift. In an open letter to the company on her Tumblr, she sweetly told the company that musicians expect to be paid for their creations, just like Apple expects money for their iPhones. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Within hours, Apple backed down: “we hear you @taylorswift…”
That was eight years ago. Since then, she (and Apple, as well) have gone from strength to strength. But in that episode Ms. Swift demonstrated that she has…
