Taylor Swift's new album "1989" sold almost 1.3 million copies in its first week, the biggest album sales since 2002. On her way to platinum success, Swift disappointed some of her fans by pulling her music catalogue from Spotify earlier this week.
Swift commented on her drastic decision and the changing landscape of the music industry in an interview with Yahoo Music. She remains skeptical of music streaming services and hesitated to contribute her work to their "grand experiment."
"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," the 24-year-old songstress said. "And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."
The "Shake It Off" singer also flinched at the low expectations industry experts gave her new album. Some projected she would sell only half of what she has accumulated so far.
"When I saw that number that was lower than what we've done before as a prediction, I didn't really know what to expect anymore. Because I hoped that I had created something that people would want to buy," Swift said. "I just was hoping and praying that people still perceived there to be a value to someone's musical creation."
Whether keeping "1989" off Spotify helped her sales, Swift said "it's impossible to try to speculate what would have happened" if she had streamed the album. She also kept her last album "Red" off the service in 2012, and only decided to stream it seven months after the release.
Swift wanted to keep an open-mind about the streaming service, so she allowed her label to release "Shake It Off" on Spotify early. She later "didn't feel right" about the decision, and it came down with the rest of her music.
"I felt like I was saying to my fans, 'If you create music someday, if you create a painting someday, someone can just walk into a museum, take it off the wall, rip off a corner off it, and it's theirs now and they don't have to pay for it,'" Swift said. "I didn't like the perception that it was putting forth. And so I decided to change the way I was doing things."
Spotify tweeted its own disappointment with Taylor Swift leaving the service. The streaming service hoped she changed her mind soon so they could play her music again.
"We were young when we first saw you but now there's 40MM who say stay, stay, stay. It's a love story baby #justsayyes," Spotify tweeted after Swift requested the removal of her music.
Her music continues to play on Pandora and her YouTube VEVO station has the music video for "Shake It Off" plus more from her previous albums.
