Even outside of the future prison colony of Manhattan, Taylor Swift’s power knows no bounds. Do not be fooled by her deceptively catchy singles and aw-shucks demeanor, for Swift actually has the music industry locked in a vise grip tight enough to make even corporate behemoth Sony Music Entertainment reconsider its policy on ad-supported streaming services.
In a statement definitely not delivered as Taylor Swift watched from the sidelines, drawing one finger across her delicate milky-white throat before pointing at the music executive, Sony Music CFO and Executive Vice President Kevin Kelleher told investors that “a lot of conversation has taken place over the last week in the light of [Swift pulling her music from Spotify]” and the company was toying with the idea of pulling its music from free, ad-based streaming services entirely. Instead, Kelleher is “very encouraged” by the development of paid subscription music services like the newly-launched YouTube Music Key—in other words, Spotify free no, Spotify premium yes.
In practical terms, Sony pulling its library would mean the loss of One Direction from Spotify’s free library—a potentially big deal, as the boy band’s new album headed Spotify’s new music newsletter this week—as well as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Pink Floyd, Slayer, and ironically enough, Foo Fighters, who really couldn’t care less.