The Covid-19 pandemic may have up-ended the music industry in many ways, but there are some familiar sights to cling to. Taylor Swift at loggerheads with Scooter Braun and Big […]
Tag: Big Machine
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Big Machine settles Taylor Swift dispute for AMAs medley
The enmity between Taylor Swift and her former label Big Machine Label Group (not to mention its new co-owner Scooter Braun) isn’t going away any time soon, we sense. But […]
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Taylor Swift and Big Machine go toe-to-toe in licensing dispute
Taylor Swift’s latest dispute with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun continues to blow up: a woman who millions of people think would make an excellent president of the United States […]
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Taylor Swift signs to UMG and claims Spotify-windfall impact
By now you’ll likely have seen yesterday’s news that Taylor Swift has signed to Universal Music Group, a month after the end of her contract with longtime label Big Machine. […]
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Bids reportedly top $300m for Big Machine Label Group
The stories about ‘Taylor Swift’s label up for sale’ seem to come around every two years or so, but the latest speculation looks like it may actually result in a […]
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Big Machine boss reveals more on Taylor Swift’s Apple standoff
Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta says he was already protesting at Apple’s plans not to pay for free-trial Apple Music streams before Taylor Swift’s famous blog post on […]
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Now Snapchat is reportedly in the running for Big Machine
Would anyone who isn’t thinking of buying Taylor Swift’s label Big Machine raise their hand? We’ve had the Apple rumour, but now here’s some even more startling speculation: could Snapchat […]
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Apple rumour-watch: iOS 8.4 and Big Machine buy
Two new music-related Apple rumours to bring you today, one of which sounds significantly less far-fetched than the other.
The one to pay more heed to is 9 to 5 Mac’s claim that Apple is targeting its iOS 8.4 software update for the relaunch of streaming service Beats Music. As a reminder, current iPhones and iPads are on iOS 8.1.3, so this is three updates away.
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Another indie artist comes out in support of Spotify
After Ron Pope, now Ben Berry of indie band Moke Hill has published an op-ed piece for Wired in support of Spotify, which he says “hasn’t been a negative, but […]
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Billy Bragg criticises Taylor Swift’s ‘corporate power play’
There is no shortage of people telling Taylor Swift why she’s right or wrong to remove her music from Spotify. Billy Bragg joined the debate yesterday, although his criticism is […]
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Big Machine and Spotify have bad blood over Taylor Swift payouts
If you thought Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s blog post on artists and streaming would settle the waters with Taylor Swift and her label Big Machine, think again. The two companies are now publicly arguing about how much Swift has been paid for streams of her music on Spotify.
Ek’s claim that payouts for an artist of Swift’s scale “are on track to exceed $6 million a year” prompted Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta to tell Time that the label had received $496,044 for “domestic streams” of Swift’s music over the last 12 months.
These figures aren’t contradictory: Ek’s is for the near future and global, while Borchetta’s is for the last year and US-only. Both are telling the truth.
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Big Machine on Taylor Swift v Spotify: ‘There’s a big fist in the air over this’
We heard from Taylor Swift last week about the decision to pull her back catalogue from Spotify, and now her label’s founder Scott Borchetta has broken his silence on the matter too.
“We determined that her fan base is so in on her, let’s pull everything off of Spotify, and any other service that doesn’t offer a premium service,” he said in a radio interview. “Now if you are a premium subscriber to Beats or Rdio or any of the other services that don’t offer just a free-only, then you will find her catalogue.”
Borchetta also suggested a wider desire to nudge Spotify into bringing its policies into line with those rivals. “It’s already happening. I’ve had calls from so many other managers and artists. There’s a big fist in the air about this. Spotify is a really good service, they just need to be a better partner and there is a lot of support for this.”