i’m not denying that taylor’s image rights management company sent cease-and-desist letters to some ETSY creators using her trademarks. however, taylor herself did not do it, and she/they didn’t actually take anybody to court. furthermore, there’s currently 27 pages of taylor swift related creations on ETSY sooooooooooo
that guitar teacher is a money-grubbing asshole. he agreed to do an article for the Daily News where he made countless uncorroborated claims about Taylor and her family that were honestly pretty damaging claims to make (i.e., “Taylor’s mom was a bull in a china shop…made her eat salad when she wanted to eat taco bell”). THEN after that article came out he registered “iTaughtTaylorSwift.com” in a pretty fucking obvious attempt at capitalizing on the singer and the article he shouldn’t have agreed to in the first place. I’d have fucking sued him too. however, the lawsuit was only threatened, and again only by her management company, not her; they again never actually sued anyone.
her problems with the streaming services are legitimate and well-documented. With Spotify, they simply are not paying out as they should be. They claim it’s 70% of their revenue stream but Spotify is valued at over $8 billion and yet they only pay out $0.006 per stream. Contrast that with Google Play Music, where Taylor’s music is available. GPM pays out 4.5 cents per stream, the highest of any streaming service. She is not doing this because she’s selfish. She’s doing this to send a message using the considerable amount of power and privilege she has to defend the rights of everyone in the music industry, particularly the little guy.
Speaking of defending the little guy, Taylor’s recent victory over Apple Music is equally legitimate. She did not “find a problem” with another streaming service just to “sell her albums”. In fact, in her open letter she literally fucking states that this is not about her, that she’s on album number five and her live shows make enough money to support her, her crew, and her entire management team. She said that she pulled support because Apple wasn’t paying any artist any royalties for three entire months during the upcoming free trial of Apple Music. She knew that her influence over Apple was enough to get them to change their minds, because her pulling her music from the service is a much greater loss for Apple than three months’ worth of streaming royalty pay-outs.
Continuing on Apple Music, it is indeed true that Taylor hasn’t signed a contract with Apple yet to keep her music on Apple Music when it opens next week. However, it’s literally not even been 24 hours since Eddy Cue made the announcement that they’d be paying those royalties. Taylor is on her own label, Big Machine Records, which does not have a contract signed yet with Apple regarding Apple Music. That label has many other artists signed to it though, and the contract will not be negotiated by Taylor. It will take time. It’s also worth noting that Apple stated they’d be paying out during the free trial on a per-stream basis as opposed to a percentage of their revenue, but they did not divulge the amount they’d be paying per stream. It’s very likely Big Machine and/or Taylor won’t join the service until such time that the pay-outs are reasonable for all artists.
Claiming that Taylor is not an activist is literally the most bullshit claim you can possibly make. She was the most charitable celebrity in 2012, 2013, and 2014. She gives money to and speaks out about everything from feminist causes to cancer research to struggling symphonies, public schools, homeless children, on and on. She visits cancer/children’s hospitals all the time in most cities she visits and explicitly does not allow cameras to follow her inside (as best she can). Certainly she could talk more about marriage equality and that type of social activism (I would argue that she makes her stance known in the song Welcome to New York, however), but saying she isn’t an activist or claiming she’s selfish is just a ridiculous and ignorant thing to say.
She DOES love her fans. Taylor loves her fans. I don’t even know how to begin to refute this completely absurd point. She has gone to fans’ weddings and bridal showers, and baby showers. She specifically has her family walk around the stadiums and find loyal fans (in the farther-away seats, implying less wealthy fans) to meet her after the show. She follows them on tumblr, she LITERALLY talks them down from the ledge on multiple occasions. She helps them when they’re hurting. She invites them to her f*cking home despite ALL THE RISKS THAT ENTAILS. She sends them gift baskets on their birthdays and Christmas and other times. She, on many occasions, helps them pay for school. I’ve seen first-hand how Taylor can change people’s lives by being present in them. I know people who she follows on Tumblr, even one person who decided not to attempt suicide because of what Taylor said to her. I know in my own life that Taylor is how I’ve gotten through the majority of my pain and heartache. She helps so many millions of people, she adores her fans and wants them all to be happy. I went to the Philly show of the 1989 Tour last week and she had a very lengthy monologue between songs where she talked entirely about depression and overcoming it and how it’s okay to feel lost and all that type of stuff and it was really uplifting and people around me were in tears because she connected with them. That’s what she does. She connects with people, whether with her music or over the Internet or however else. You can’t possibly say she doesn’t love her fans. She 100% does. I know it in my bones.
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