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Just when you thought pop culture superstars had no souls and that sticking up for the little guy was a lost art, Taylor Swift pulled a massive PGPM (postgrad power move, for the newcomers) in recent memory.
According to USA Today, when notified by Apple that artists would not receive any royalties during its promotional free trial for its Spotify-like music streaming service, Swift threatened to take down her music altogether unless a deal was made to be properly paid her royalties. T-Swift’s motion to give Apple a black eye on their new startup sent a strong message to the tech giant, as they decided to give all artists proper royalties as a result of her stance.
Per the USA Today report, analyst Anne Kruger praised Swift’s courageous actions, saying, “She’s really using her power to try to do something to change for good in this industry.”
You go, Glen Coco T-Swift. Like most Americans, I recently accused you of being a hardcore sellout for switching from your knack that was country-pop (you may have even invented the genre) to a slightly broader genre I know as teenaged-white-girl-pop. In honor of you putting your beautiful foot down on Apple’s authority, I redact my overly judgmental accusation. You’re a beautiful soul, and you can hit me up any time you’d like.
On the other hand, this isn’t exactly a good look for the once-unstoppable tech corporate kingdom that is Apple, Inc. After owning seemingly every second of technology news for the entire 2000s (Aughts), they’re now playing catch-up in the smartphone game to Samsung, and now have been caught trying to pull off this cheap trick to woo away loyal Spotify customers.
Time will tell for us to see how this Spotify vs. Apple Music mano-a-mano folds out, but for now, three cheers to Taylor Swift for sticking up for the little guy. As with most people, I didn’t choose the PGP life, the PGP life chose me, and I think I speak for all of us in that we could use some more of that in our dead-end lives.
P.S. “You Belong With Me”.
Image via Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
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An enthusiastic kid at heart, I'm passionate about properly taking care of my hairline, having an inappropriate amount of DVR series recordings, and pretending to be a beer snob. Still on my quest to find my irresistible lifeguard dream girl who can rock the one-piece bathing suit. Hit me up on MySpace.
Good thing Swift and other musicians are in the media’s good graces. If a conservative or some oil company did something like this, it would be seen as evil greedy rich people protecting their profits. It’s interesting who can get away with what in our society.
Y’know, chip on your shoulder notwithstanding, you really don’t have to make everything political. Especially on PGP for God’s sake.
Ok. I’ll try not to make political/cultural comments on a political/cultural post in the future.
That was a very interesting way to look at it.
Would someone explain to me how exactly Apple is behind Samsung in mobile phones, in the author’s mind? I mean, yeah, better hardware in Galaxy phones, but it’s been that way for years. Apple still dominates them in software and actually making the UI somewhat understandable. And apps tend to be made for Apple, and have more cross platform uses for those that are embedded in the Apple ecosystem.
PS: I’ll see myself out for being the nerd in the room.