As streaming music has taken over as the primary way that most people listen to the music they love, there have been some big changes to how the music industry operates. For examples, artists seem to be more willing to release standalone singles instead of (or in addition to) albums. That’s something that, in a general sense, Taylor Swift is fine with. In a new interview, though, she says that what rubs her the wrong way about it is her belief that it may not entirely be the artists’ decision to release their music this way.
In a new Music Week interview, Swift says, “As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but it feels like a big general wave that’s been pressured by people in power, that’s not cool. I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and hand it to a team that masterminds it.”
https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1191732188976427008
She also spoke about the newfound creative freedom she has felt since signing with Republic Records, saying, “In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100 percent to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ — there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make.”
Read portions of the interview (or the full thing with a subscription) here.
