• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechSpotify

Taylor Swift and Spotify Get Back Together: Music Catalog Comes Back to Streaming

By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 9, 2017, 11:07 AM ET

It may not be quite as dramatic as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry burying the hatchet, but for Swift fans, it is likely to be a huge deal. As of midnight Friday, all of the pop star’s music is now available on every streaming service, including Spotify.

In messages posted on Thursday night to Twitter and Instagram, Swift’s management company said the return to streaming was a gift to her loyal fans, in honor of her album selling 10 million copies.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/kcpY03qHLp

— Taylor Nation (@taylornation13) June 8, 2017

Swift famously rejected Spotify in 2014, pulling all of her songs from the service because she said it wasn’t paying artists enough, and that it didn’t give artists enough flexibility on pricing. As she told TIME (which is owned by Time Inc., Fortune‘s parent company):

I tried it and I didn’t like the way it felt. I think there should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.

Losing Swift was a major blow to Spotify because she was not only one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but her album 1989 had just been released and looked to be a massive hit. The company tried to win her back with a specially curated playlist designed to send her a message, but to no avail.

The following year, Swift lashed out at Apple as well, after the consumer electronics giant launched its new Apple Music streaming service with a three-month free trial, and told artists that they wouldn’t receive any royalties for those three months.

“Three months is a long time to ask people to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing,” the artist wrote in an open letter to Apple. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Apple quickly changed its policy.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

So why has Swift decided to put her music back on streaming services now? There are a few possible reasons, and one of the major ones is that Spotify changed the way it handles new releases.

In April, the streaming service signed a deal with Universal Music Group, one of the largest of the global record labels, which would allow the label’s artists (including Swift) to restrict their new albums and songs to paying subscribers for two weeks.

As the lack of this kind of “windowing” approach was one of the things that led to Swift leaving Spotify in the first place, the announcement sparked speculation that she might return to the service once it was introduced.

Streaming services have also grown to the point where consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says it expects revenue from streaming to eclipse sales of both CDs and traditional records for the first time this year.

Meanwhile, some music fans and industry insiders are whispering about another potential reason why Swift might have chosen to return her music to Spotify and other streaming services now: her long-running feud with fellow pop star Katy Perry. The two have been taking thinly veiled musical potshots at each other since 2014.

Perry’s new album was just released on Friday, leading some to speculate that Swift timed her return to streaming services in such a way as to steal the spotlight from her musical nemesis.

Whatever the rationale, the detente between Swift and the major streaming services seems likely to even further inflate the already massive marketing machine that is Taylor Swift. And for Spotify in particular, it provides a much-needed boost, as the company prepares for a potential stock offering that some analysts expect to hit the market later this year.

About the Author
By Mathew Ingram
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

Latest in Tech

Man wearing a black suit with a microphone
InvestingMicrostrategy
Michael Saylor’s Strategy flirts again with the danger threshold at which his company is worth less than his Bitcoin
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 2, 2026
18 hours ago
Musk
Travel & LeisureElectric vehicles
Tesla is officially smaller than China’s BYD in EV sales as it reports second-straight year of falling sales
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 2, 2026
18 hours ago
blondie
Lawintellectual property
Betty Boop and Blondie join Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain
By Andrew Dalton and The Associated PressJanuary 2, 2026
19 hours ago
Eric Simons
Commentarystart-ups
15 years after skipping college to launch 3 startups, I believe the taboo around questioning higher ed is holding an entire generation back
By Eric SimonsJanuary 2, 2026
20 hours ago
Eric Schmidt sat in a white chair, speaking on a stage.
AIGoogle
How former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is motivated by Henry Kissinger to keep working past 70
By Jordan BlumJanuary 2, 2026
21 hours ago
Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, speaks during the Collision 2022 conference at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada.
AIElectricity
Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt jumps into the AI data center business with a failed, 150-year-old Texas railroad turned oil giant
By Jordan BlumJanuary 2, 2026
22 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
Marriott’s CEO spoke out about DEI. The next day, he had 40,000 emails from his associates
By Ashley LutzJanuary 1, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Melinda French Gates got her start at Microsoft because an IBM hiring manager told her to turn down its job offer—'It dumbfounded me'
By Emma BurleighDecember 31, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Buddhist monks peace-walking from Texas to DC persist even after being run over on highway outside Houston
By The Associated PressDecember 30, 2025
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Red Lobster’s 36-year-old CEO led the company after bankruptcy. Now he’s plotting the 'greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry'
By Sydney LakeJanuary 2, 2026
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Exiting CEO left each employee at his family-owned company a $443,000 gift—but they have to stay 5 more years to get all of it
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 30, 2025
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
Banking
Man says Goldman Sachs put him through a gauntlet of 39 one-on-one interviews—and the decisive conversation was less than a minute
By Dave SmithJanuary 2, 2026
23 hours ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.