News November 8, 2017

Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album won’t be available on streaming services for a full week

Charts & New Music Editor

Taylor Swiftis expected to hold back her forthcoming album Reputationfrom all streaming servicesduring the first week of salesfollowing its November 10 release.

ReportsfromBloomberg suggests that the 27-year-old pop star’s team is currently negotiating with streaming services to determine an exact date and time in which the album will become available for consumption on the format. Reputation will otherwise be available in retail outlets and digital stores such as iTunes from the date of release.

A record label insider told TMN: “It’s a strategy of pure greed and absolute hypocrisy that is a ploy to grab headlines leading into the album release on Friday.

“It will prove nothing except how to swell the financial return from a physical/download weighted chart system and achieve nothing to increase the value of the art of music which she so sardonically claims to uphold.”

Along with many other esteemed artists, Swift has long criticised streaming services for “devaluing” and “cheapening” music. Services such as Spotify make much of their catalogue available free of charge to low tier subscribers, supported by advertising.

Reputation is being tipped as one of the highest charting debuts of the year, and the decision to postpone the album’s streaming availability will may affect its debut form in Australia.

In May 2017, ARIA beganincorporating streams from Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, and Deezer into their Albums Chart in an effort to accurately reflect how Australians are consuming music. It’sbecome a pivotalaspect ofthe global music industry going forward,surging 127% in Australia over the last financial year according to ARIA’s 2016/17 financial report.

While the debut ARIA week for Reputationwill be November 13, Swift will likely shoot up the chart the following week considering the streaming restrictions are lifted. To date, Swift has three Australian #1 albums to her name (Speak Now, Red, 1989) and has spent a total of 13 weeks at the top of the Albums Chart.

In a similar way, Adeleheld back her record-breaking album 25 from all streaming services for a full seven months after its November 2015 release. Nonetheless, the album spent 10 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 before streaming data could even be incorporated and also went straight #1 in Australia.