Does Taylor Swift like iTunes? Of course she does. In an interview to celebrate being named Billboard Woman of the Year, she talks about how she discovers music. “I buy it on iTunes. Things I see trending online, friends on Twitter who tweet about new music. iTunes has really good recommendations – “You like Lorde, you’ll probably like Broods.” Well, I do like Broods! Thank you, iTunes.” Apple will be thanking Swift for rare public praise of its recommendation algorithms. But Swift’s answer sparked the obvious follow-on question about Spotify, the service where Swift’s music remains unavailable. “I wrote an entire op-ed piece [for The Wall Street Journal] back in the summer that was essentially foreshadowing this decision. I’ve talked about it openly and directly, and there’s nothing more to elaborate on. Until Spotify starts to fairly compensate the creators of music, I’m not going to be a part of it.” We wish she’d been given more space to elaborate on how that compensation should get fairer, though: the now-familiar ‘what, more than 70% of revenues, which is what iTunes pays too?’ question would have been on our lips at this point.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…