Taylor Swift's Bad Feeling About Spotify Cost Her $6 Million

published 12 November 2014

Are you OK, Taylor Swift? It was fun counting your outfits (opens in new tab) and watching you (opens in new tab) go Elin Nordegren on Sean O'Pry's poor two-seater, but this new intel has us a teensy bit worried about your actual marbles.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek released a statement (opens in new tab) Tuesday, in which he addressed the "Blank Space" singer-songwriter's departure from the music-streaming service and casually mentioned how much money she missed out on.

"At our current size, payouts for a top artist like Taylor Swift (before she pulled her catalog) are on track to exceed $6 million a year," Ek said. "We expect that number to double again in a year. Any way you cut it, one thing is clear—we're paying an enormous amount of money to labels and publishers for distribution to artists and songwriters, and significantly more than any other streaming service."

Earlier this month, Swift removed her catalogue from Spotify, explaining her decision to Yahoo Music (opens in new tab) with a music-as-painting metaphor. "I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music," she said.

We plebeians might gnash our teeth at the loss of $6 million, but to the second highest-grossing woman in music (opens in new tab), that sum is just one less house in Hyannis Port—and a small price to pay for taking a stand.

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Image via Getty

Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at MarieClaire.com. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.