Taylor Swift Looking to Launch Online Music Service
Taylor Swift has filed trademarks to launch a service that may offer music downloads and content, EW has learned. TMZ first reported the news.
Should the 27-year-old pop star ultimately launch a digital music hub, it could resemble services maintained by the likes of Pearl Jam, Phish, and Bruce Springsteen, which those artists use to distribute their own concert recordings and rarities.
Swift has had a complicated relationship with the music streaming services. When she released her most recent album, 1989, in late 2014, Swift declined to offer it on platforms like Spotify — and went a step further when she subsequently pulled the rest of her catalog from streaming services.
Though Swift’s music remains unavailable on Spotify — save her recent Zayn collaboration, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” from the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack — she has eased her approach to streaming since 2014. When TIDAL launched in March 2015, it hosted much of her catalog. And in June 2015, after Swift wrote a scathing indictment of Apple Music titled “Dear Apple, Love Taylor,” the tech behemoth modified its artist revenue model and added her music to its library. (Swift has since gone on to publish exclusive content through Apple Music and become one of its most noteworthy celebrity endorsers.)
The latest Swift news comes as speculation surrounding her in-the-works sixth album continues to grow. Swift played only one concert in 2016 and, at a pre-Super Bowl gig in February, told the crowd, “By coming to this show tonight, you are attending 100 percent of this year’s tour dates.”
While she’s gone nearly two-and-a-half years since releasing 1989 — the longest gap she’s taken between albums in her young career — don’t expect a new record in the near future. Fresh off releasing his latest full-length, ÷, earlier this month, Ed Sheeran said to expect “a full year of just all Ed” before Swift’s next project arrives.
