There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment. ~Elvis Costello
A judge has dismissed a copyright case against Taylor Swift for her popular song “Shake It Off,” saying the lyrics within were too banal to be copyrighted. Ouch.
The BBC reports that the suit was brought last year by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who alleged Swift stole her chorus for the hit from their song for girl band 3LW titled “Playas Gon’ Play.” That song asserts “playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate,” while “Shake It Off” insists “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” You can see the similarities for yourself…
Think you can tell one of Taylor Swift’s musical declarations of independence from something on the “You Can Do It” shelf at Barnes & Noble? Take the quiz at BuzzFeed:
Taylor Swift’s new album, Red, sold more 1.2 million copies in its first week — the highest first-week sales total for an album in over a decade. She did it partly by answering a surprisingly complicated question: What’s the best way to sell an album?
There are so many ways to release your music these days. You can sell it at Amazon, iTunes, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. You can release it to streaming sites like Spotify. You can go on tour.
Each artist chooses a mix of tools from this toolbox. And choosing the right mix can help an artist make money — something that’s hard to do in an era when it’s so easy to get free music.
Taylor Swift picked expertly. As Paul Resnikoff, editor and founder of Digital Music News points out, she has chosen from the toolbox only the outlets that would give her the most money for every album sold: Outlets that pushed a full album purchase.
The first week her album came out, you could only get it in a few key places: i-tunes, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Target. You could order a Papa Johns pizza and receive the CD — at the sticker price of around 14 bucks.
But the tools Swift didn’t use are as important than the ones she did. By refusing to release her singles on Spotify, or any other streaming site, she pushed her fans to buy the album. Spotify pays the artist pennies on the dollar. Taylor Swift skipped it.
“Taylor already has so many fans, that she doesn’t need to have that, like, incentive,” 16-year-old superfan Lindsey Feinstein says. “Like, ‘Oh, listen to this, and then you’ll buy it.’ She’s past that level.”
Streaming music is more like an advertisement for the artist. It’s a process of music discovery, not necessarily music fandom. You build brand loyalty to the artist through streaming. Taylor Swift does not have a problem with brand loyalty. As Lindsey says, she’s past that.
Every Moment Has A Song 