NEW YORK (Hypebot) – Taylor Swift pulling her music off Spotify and most other streaming music services was one of the top music industry stories of 2014. Swift and label yanked her music after Spotify refused to make her new music only available to paying subscribers. Swift said that she made art; and artists deserved to be properly compensated. Fair enough. But the unfortunate gaping hole in Swift's argument was that any fan could still listen to (and watch) her music for free on YouTube and Vevo.
It turns out that Taylor Swift made a financially savvy decision.
According to analytics firm OpenSlate, who estimate YouTube earnings using a formula including total monthly views and subscriptions, Swift and company earned $4,110,788.52 based on 341711430 monthly views on her Vevo channel. Her new release “Blank Spaces” had over 250 million views.
That made Swifts channel one of the 10 most profitable YouTube channels of 2014, according to VentureBeat.
How Does This Compare To Income From Music Streaming?
Of course these are just estimates. But I'd love to also see one from Spotify, Mark Mulligan or someone else – of just how this $.1 million compares to the amount Swift and her label would have also received if she'd also been on Spotify and other music streamers.
