The Taylor Swift Connection

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Taylor Swift’s 2014 YouTube Take? An Estimated $4 Million


Here’s more fuel for the furor Taylor Swift started last year when she pulled her music from Spotify.

The country-pop crossover star’s YouTube channel earned an estimated $4 million in 2014, according to OpenSlate, an online video statistics provider, as reported by VentureBeat (via Hypebot).

That gives the 1989 singer/songwriter the channel with the second-highest 2014 earnings overall, behind the toddler-beloved toy reviewer DisneyCollectorBR but ahead of South Park-visiting video game commentator PewDiePie.

Swift’s channel is easily the biggest earner from the music world; emimusic, which also made the top five, raked in an estimated $3.1 million. The only other music-related channel in the top 10 lands at No. 8 courtesy of Spinnin’ Records, an electronic dance brand with YouTube income pegged at $2.5 million. The estimates are based on a formula of monthly views and subscriptions.

The figures further demonstrate Swift’s commercial clout, but they probably won’t silence the debate over her decision to leave Spotify. When it comes to what Swift would’ve earned from Spotify, the numbers disagree. The streaming service’s CEO, Daniel Ek, initially suggested she was on track to take in $6 million a year. Swift’s label boss, Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta, said her U.S. payout from Spotify over the past 12 months had been $496K. A Spotify rep at the time said her global payout over the same period had been $2 million. It’s a case of he-said, she-said, though let’s hope Swift doesn’t write a song about it.

Swift continues to factor heavily into discussions of the rise in streaming as compared with old-fashioned sales. In the final week of 2014, Swift’s 1989 edged out Disney’s Frozen soundtrack to become the biggest seller of the year. As The New York Times reports, though, Frozen still did better based on Billboard‘s new metric of “album equivalent units”: While 1989 sold 3.66 million copie in the United States compared to Frozen‘s 3.53 million, Frozen moved 4.47 million of the streaming-included units, versus 4.40 million for Swift.

Swift’s gains from YouTube also come as the music community wrestles with how it feels about the “freemium” model, where streaming services offer both free and paid versions. Spotify uses the freemium model; YouTube only recently added a paid subscription music service to its standard free offering. Borchetta, the Big Machine CEO, has said Spotify had refused the label’s request to keep Swift’s music limited to the service’s paid tier.

The issue of freemium surfaced, too, in a recent year-in-review essay by U2‘s Bono. “The reason I respect for-fee services like Spotify is that they are slowly turning people who are used to getting their music for-FREE, into paying ten dollars a month for a subscription model,” Bono wrote. “These payments don’t add up to replacement for income from physical or digital sales at the moment — but I think they can if everyone sits down — record companies, artists and digital services — to figure out a fairer way of doing business.”

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Taylor Swift’s ’1989′ Stays No. 1 for Milestone Eighth Week


Years change, chart rules change, but Taylor Swift‘s stays on top. The industry-dominating singer/songwriter’s 1989 beat out Disney’s Frozen soundtrack at the final buzzer to become the best-selling album of 2014. Now, the “Blank Space“-spawning full-length is No. 1 on the first Billboard 200 chart of 2015.

In the week that ended January 4, according to Nielsen Music, 1989 moved 244,000 of the new “album equivalent units,” which take into account streaming and song downloads. Swift’s latest has now spent eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, more than 2012′s Red (seven weeks) and 2010′s Speak Now (six weeks). Her sophomore album, 2008′s Fearless, is still her longest-running chart-topper (13 weeks) — at least for now.

Ooga-chaka! Beyond Swift, the most noteworthy development on the chart came courtesy of the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. The music from 2014′s biggest blockbuster film jumped from No. 9 to No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (70K). But all of those album equivalent units were from pure album sales. As Billboard notes, soundtracks generally do well on the charts in early January, perhaps due to gift cards, and various digital retailers were offering Guardians at a discount last week.

Elsewhere, the new math is beginning to add up. Ariana Grande’s My Everything stayed in place at No. 10 (43K). If Billboard hadn’t updated its chart methodology late last year to include streaming and track sales, the album would have been only No. 26.

As for the rest of the top 10, Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint sticks at No. 2 (84K), Ed Sheeran’s x jumps to No. 3 (83K — those gift cards again?) and Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour ticks upward to No. 4 (82K). Following Guardians, we have Hozier’s Hozier (No. 6, 60K), J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive (No. 7, 59K), Disney’s Into the Woods soundtrack (No. 8, 57K) and One Direction’s My Everything (No. 9, 55K) before wrapping up with Grande’s My Everything.

It’s worth keeping in mind that sales in general were in a slump after the holiday. Into the Woods was the only album in the Billboard 200′s top 50 to see a sales increasing, gaining 9 percent. Overall sales were down 47 percent from the previous week. It’s not immediately clear how total sales compare to their 2014 equivalent, but in the first tracking week of last year, chart-topper Frozen (yes, that one again) sold 165K, which is actually less than the 172K pure album sales for Swift’s 1989.

Looking ahead, next week’s chart might find a place for Rae Sremmurd’s SremmLife, but in a slow week for releases, Swift’s 1989 shouldn’t have much trouble holding down the top spot for a ninth time.

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After only 2 months!!!

Taylor Swift Tops ‘Frozen’ for 2014′s Best-Selling Album

What a difference a few months can make. As of mid-October, not one artist’s album had sold more than one million copies for the year, and Disney’s late-2013 Frozen soundtrack was the top-selling album of 2014. Later that month, Taylor Swift released a little album called 1989. Now the final numbers are in, and 1989 has beaten Frozen in a squeaker.

The final results don’t exactly mean boom times are back for the music world — far from it — but they do paint a slightly less dismal picture of 2014.

Swift’s 1989 sold 3.66 million copies on the year, as Billboard reports, citing Nielsen Music. Frozen shifted 3.53 million. Dramatically, T-Swift overtook Elsa in the last tracking week of 2014, which ended December 28; the Disney crew was in front for every other week of the year. It’s not Swift’s first time with a best-selling album of the year: Her sophomore LP, Fearless, outsold every other album in 2009, with 3.22 million units shifted. But it’s only the second time an album has pulled into the top spot in the last week of the year, followed by another Disney soundtrack, The Lion King, defeating Ace of Base’s The Sign at the end of 1994.

Swift is an industry unto herself at this point, though, and for the rest of the music business the 2014 numbers are, at best, mixed. The sales tallies for 1989 and Frozen mark a bit of a rebound from 2013, when Justin Timberlake‘s The 20/20 Experience became the lowest-selling year-end champ on record, with 2.4 million copies sold (no other album in 2013 sold more than 2 million). On the other hand, in 2013 there were 13 million-sellers and 45 albums that sold 500,000 copies or more. In 2014, only four albums sold a million, while 31 sold 500,000. And overall album sales kept falling, down 11 percent from 2013 at 257 million. For the second straight year, and only the second time ever, digital album and track sales each also fell, coinciding with listeners’ ongoing shift toward streaming.

One positive: Vinyl’s comeback continues. People bought 9.2 million vinyl albums in 2014, according to Nielsen, up 52 percent from the previous year. Every year now since 2008, annual vinyl album sales have been their highest since Nielsen started keeping track in 1991. Jack White‘s Lazaretto, long a lock for the year’s best-selling vinyl album, wound up selling 86,707 copies on vinyl in the United States and more than 150K globally, according to his website (via Stereogum). In another sign of vinyl’s continued resurgence, Fat Possum Records has opened its own vinyl pressing plant near Memphis, Tennessee.

Essentially, then, fewer new albums are selling, but there remains a passionate core of fans willing to pay to own a physical format. And there’s still an ample appetite for debating top albums — over at Deadspin, Rob Mitchum counts 35 lists championing 588 albums. The album is dead, long live the album, and all that.

Following Swift and Frozen on the year-end sales chart are Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour (No. 3, 1.2 million), Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas to Me (No. 4, 1.1 million) and Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack (No. 5, 898K — no word how many of those sales were on cassette). Beyond the top five are Beyoncé’s Beyoncé (No. 6, 878K), Barbra Streisand’s Partners (No. 7, 856K), Lorde’s Pure Heroine (No. 8, 841K), One Direction’s Four (No. 9, 814K) and Eric Church’s The Outsiders (No. 10, 811K).

As for individual tracks, Pharrell Williams‘s “Happy” was the biggest-selling digital song of 2014, with 6.45 million downloads purchased. That compares with about 6.5 million downloads of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” in 2013. “Happy” is followed by John Legend’s “All of Me” (No. 2, 4.7M), Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” (No. 3, 4.4 million), Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” (No. 4, 4.4 million) and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (No. 5, 4 million). Rounding out the top 10 Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” (No. 6, 4 million), DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What” (No. 7, 3.5 million), Swift’s “Shake It Off” (No. 8, 3.4 million), Idina Menzel’s Frozen song “Let It Go” (No. 9, 3.4 million) and Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” (No. 10, 3.3 million).

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There are some celebrities that don't seem to do much good by way of their fame. But not Taylor Swift. The world needs more people like Taylor Swift.

The star recently took time out of her jet-setting schedule to reach out to a bullied fan about to start another difficult school year, and the Instagram message she sent made our hearts melt.

"It's okay to wonder how you could try so hard and still get stomped all over," she wrote in her message, which was shared by fans on Twitter. "Just don't let them change you or stop you from singing or dancing around to your favorite song."

Although it might be hard to imagine now, the red carpet-walking, Grammy Award-winning star was herself bullied in middle school. She credits the experience with making her such a good songwriter -- and, it seems, it taught her just want to say to a struggling teen in need:


"Reading this made me so sad because I love seeing you in your videos and photos being so happy and wide eyed, like the world isn't as harsh and unfair as it actually is. I hate thinking about your pretty face covered in tears, but I know why you're crying because I've been in your place. This isn't a high school thing or an age thing. It's a people thing. A life thing. It doesn't stop. It doesn't end or change.

People cut other people down for entertainment, amusement, out of jealousy, because of something broken inside them. Or for no reason at all. It's just what they do, and you're a target because you live your life loudly and boldly. You're bright and joyful and so many people are cynical. They won't understand you and they won't understand me.

But the only way they win is if your tears turn to stone and make you bitter like them. It's okay to ask why. It's okay to wonder how you could try so hard and still get stomped all over. Just don't let them change you or stop you from singing or dancing around to your favorite song.

You're going into high school this week and this is your chance to push the reset button on how much value you give the opinion of these kids, most of whom have NO idea who they are. I'm so proud of you and protective of you because you DO. If they don't like you for being yourself, be yourself even more.

Every time someone picks on me, I'll think of you in the hopes that every time someone picks on you, you'll think of me... and how we have this thread that connects us. Let them keep living in the darkness and we'll keep walking in the sunlight.

Forever on your side, Taylor."

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Taylor has her own youtube channel?

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Have you ever woke up on a surreal level...really surreal?

Last night my brother Jim died of a heart attack in Oklahoma.

Not Bimbo...he was supposed to be there for me when we retired.

We were supposed to make up for all the days that we missed while living.

We both worked every day of our lives...just like dad.

I hope that Jim has slowed down enough and that he and dad can finally conversate...you know?

I literally looked up to Bim...as my mentor...as my friend...and he was 6 foot 5.

As skinny as an Arkansas split rail and as strong as a Colorado wind.

The thing about him is the way he is still here with me...guiding my fingers.

I have been rattling these words around in my head...not because they rhyme.

Coulda...woulda and shoulda...they are self explanatory.

My family is talking around me...not to me...as usual...my wife is my PR or something I guess.

I can tell that not much has changed in our family dynamics...still the same.

So here I sit...pouring my heart out to you guys...thanks.

I realize that nothing really matters once a person leaves this plane...but I wonder.

Jimbo was the one who was supposed to live to be an old man...a great grand dad.

I on the other have shoulda crossed that threshold many times before.

Life certainly is not fair...it never is...still I wonder.

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My brother Jim and our friend Chris and my late brother in law played this tune to the...

youtu.be/hIaS_vYIQ_A

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Michael,

I do know the surreal feeling. I'm so glad your telling us more about your brother.

We're here. We'll all be here for you.

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Jan 15, 2015 10:09:24 GMT -5 @jolene said:

Michael,

I do know the surreal feeling. I'm so glad your telling us more about your brother.

We're here. We'll all be here for you.

Thank you Jo and Kora and the rest of the gang for caring.

I just realized that I knew this guy ALL of my life...longer than anyone except for my mom.

I think he went back and forth from Oklahoma to Colorado a few times...A good son.

I went to bed the other night just saying "Jim...go to Heaven" over and over and over until I went to sleep.

I awoke feeling nothing for Jim but a feelin a hella lot on myself...the prodigal one.

Guilt about what we did to other countries in combat...are we all guilty of supporting that?

I don't think I had an epiphany ... but I think most of our military is destined for hell.

I wonder what Holly's take on this would be...or my prison friend Jimmy.

Two Jim's in January sounds like a song I would probably not listen to.

We move on...and typing this out is my therapy and your torture.

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One of the first real conversations that I had with my brother Jim was... what are we going to do when we grow up?

Jim already knew...he was going to be a scientist and be stationed in Antarctica...I said me too.

I had no idea what Antarctica was but I knew that scientists got to mess with creep crawlies...I'm all in!

For Christmas one year we got a scientist set where you made centipedes and beetles that we Would eat...yummy.

Well those windows and doors in our past were never opened and that is all for the better...did you know that it is cold down there?

I'll share a photo of my brother Jim taken years ago...one of my 3 sisters posted this.

[jeff2k6]

Man, I want so bad.. to go to the 'Taylor Swift Experience' looking at the pics makes my mouth water! =[ haha

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Michael,

Great picture of your brother.

About the military and war, I'm not the Biblical scholar in any way shape or form but I googled this for you:

www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_war.htm

I'll add in why my hubby joined the military. On his mom's side, there are the Mennonites and preceding them in the family tree were the Friends.....both of which are Pacifist Christian denominations. But my husband grew up believing that you stand up for those who can not stand up for themselves. When he joined the military, it was for that reason.

The U.S. military has done so much good in the world. I know some people would disagree with that but it's not the position of mainstream religion (included in the link above). We have stood up for many people, in many countries who were so under attack they didn't have the resources to fight against the harm that was being done to them.

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Jan 16, 2015 20:04:03 GMT -5 @jolene said:

Michael,

Great picture of your brother.

About the military and war, I'm not the Biblical scholar in any way shape or form but I googled this for you:

www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_war.htm

I'll add in why my hubby joined the military. On his mom's side, there are the Mennonites and preceding them in the family tree were the Friends.....both of which are Pacifist Christian denominations. But my husband grew up believing that you stand up for those who can not stand up for themselves. When he joined the military, it was for that reason.

The U.S. military has done so much good in the world. I know some people would disagree with that but it's not the position of mainstream religion (included in the link above). We have stood up for many people, in many countries who were so under attack they didn't have the resources to fight against the harm that was being done to them.

Thank you so much for the link Jo...there are certainly a lot of different views in the world.

Last night we had a memorial for Jim at his sons house...my how people have changed.

We later drove by his old house and found my brothers best buddy Pugsley dead on the side of the road.

I suppose that he would rather go with Jim instead of facing heartbreak all alone...he was with Jim until the end.

We laughed and told jokes way into the night...just as Jim wanted.

His boys Austin and Cory and Cory's sons Johnson and Creighton are really manning up.

I felt the tension between Austin and Cory and brought it up...they haven't spoke for years.

I pointed out that Austin is the oldest so he should steer the helm for the family.

Then of coarse Cory is in town and willing and able...so he should get it.

It is a position of making everyone feel included...to go out of your way to help family.

I was talking about it and then saw my Nephews Austin and Cory hugging...talking...talking...talking...WIN!

Your family history about Pacifism is pretty much what I think the Christian faith should resemble.

I know their have been millions of military members killed and untold number of civilian casualties taken since the beginning of time.

I now wonder if the ones who have never gotten blood on their hands...the ones making War...will have any consequences when their time comes?

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Jan 16, 2015 18:09:24 GMT -5 jeff2k6 said:

Man, I want so bad.. to go to the 'Taylor Swift Experience' looking at the pics makes my mouth water! =[ haha

Hmmmm...Jeffery my man...how long have you had this problem?

You may be hallucinating...but if I were to hallucinate...I would hallucinate Taylor too!

About the watering mouth problem...look at it this way...if you are ever thirsty...look at Taylor!

Now forgetting to post a link makes me wonder what all the fuss is about.

In my opinion Jeffery...you are doing just fine.

Though I will prescribe a prescription for you... to write a whole lot more>

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2872725/Show-just-turned-25-Taylor-Swift-MUSEUM-dedicated-her.html

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I read this and still don't know what it means...I know that you cannot get Taylors music on you tube anymore...only other peoples renditions.

The officially released videos are free...and skyrocketing with numbers of views.

Here’s more fuel for the furor Taylor Swift started last year when she pulled her music from Spotify.

The country-pop crossover star’s YouTube channel earned an estimated $4 million in 2014, according to OpenSlate, an online video statistics provider, as reported by VentureBeat (via Hypebot).

That gives the 1989 singer/songwriter the channel with the second-highest 2014 earnings overall, behind the toddler-beloved toy reviewer DisneyCollectorBR but ahead of South Park-visiting video game commentator PewDiePie.

Swift’s channel is easily the biggest earner from the music world; emimusic, which also made the top five, raked in an estimated $3.1 million. The only other music-related channel in the top 10 lands at No. 8 courtesy of Spinnin’ Records, an electronic dance brand with YouTube income pegged at $2.5 million. The estimates are based on a formula of monthly views and subscriptions.

The figures further demonstrate Swift’s commercial clout, but they probably won’t silence the debate over her decision to leave Spotify. When it comes to what Swift would’ve earned from Spotify, the numbers disagree. The streaming service’s CEO, Daniel Ek, initially suggested she was on track to take in $6 million a year. Swift’s label boss, Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta, said her U.S. payout from Spotify over the past 12 months had been $496K. A Spotify rep at the time said her global payout over the same period had been $2 million. It’s a case of he-said, she-said, though let’s hope Swift doesn’t write a song about it.

Swift continues to factor heavily into discussions of the rise in streaming as compared with old-fashioned sales. In the final week of 2014, Swift’s 1989 edged out Disney’s Frozen soundtrack to become the biggest seller of the year. As The New York Times reports, though, Frozen still did better based on Billboard‘s new metric of “album equivalent units”: While 1989 sold 3.66 million copie in the United States compared to Frozen‘s 3.53 million, Frozen moved 4.47 million of the streaming-included units, versus 4.40 million for Swift.

Swift’s gains from YouTube also come as the music community wrestles with how it feels about the “freemium” model, where streaming services offer both free and paid versions. Spotify uses the freemium model; YouTube only recently added a paid subscription music service to its standard free offering. Borchetta, the Big Machine CEO, has said Spotify had refused the label’s request to keep Swift’s music limited to the service’s paid tier.

The issue of freemium surfaced, too, in a recent year-in-review essay by U2‘s Bono. “The reason I respect for-fee services like Spotify is that they are slowly turning people who are used to getting their music for-FREE, into paying ten dollars a month for a subscription model,” Bono wrote. “These payments don’t add up to replacement for income from physical or digital sales at the moment — but I think they can if everyone sits down — record companies, artists and digital services — to figure out a fairer way of doing business.”