Sarah
12.1K posts
Sarah 리트윗함
Universal Music is selling $1.4 billion in Spotify shares. It paid nothing for them. Spotify handed the shares over in 2008 just for letting Spotify play music, and the deal was set up so almost none of that money would ever reach the artists who made the music. Taylor Swift's 2018 contract changed that.
Back in 2008, Spotify was a small Swedish startup that needed songs to play. The big record labels had the songs. They had no reason to hand them over cheap, so the two sides cut a deal. Spotify gave them shares. The labels gave Spotify the right to play their music. Universal walked away with 5%. That stake later grew to 7% when Universal bought EMI and rolled EMI's 2% into its own. Then it drifted back to 3% as Spotify took on more investors and shrank everyone's slice. At today's prices, 3% of Spotify is worth about $2.7 billion. Universal sat on those shares for 18 years and never sold a single one. Until yesterday.
Most artists never see royalty money. When a label signs you, it pays you an advance to live on while you make the album. It also covers your studio time, your music videos, your marketing, your tour. All of those costs go on a tab. The label keeps every dollar your music earns until you clear that tab. Berklee, the music school in Boston, says as many as 96% of major-label artists never earn enough to clear it. They stay in the red their entire careers.
Sony moved first in 2018. It sold half its Spotify shares for $768 million and paid $250 million directly to its artists in cash, no matter how much each one still owed. Warner followed a few months later. It sold all of its Spotify shares for $504 million and said $126 million would go to its artists too. Warner played it differently. Most of that money went to pay down what those artists already owed, instead of putting fresh cash in their pockets.
Taylor Swift was negotiating her own deal with Universal that same year. She refused to sign unless Universal put the Sony version of the rule in her contract. Cash to artists, no matter what they owed. She wrote at the time that the clause "meant more to me than any other deal point." Universal had said publicly in March 2018 it would share Spotify money with artists. But it had not put the cash-not-credit rule in writing. Swift's contract, signed eight months later, did.
Universal is finally selling. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash are about to land in artists' bank accounts, including artists who have spent years or decades in the red and would otherwise get nothing from a sale like this.
Most of those artists have never met Taylor Swift. All of them benefit from a single line she insisted on eight years ago.
Pop Base@PopBase
Taylor Swift’s record contract could lead to millions of dollars being paid to artists as UMG prepares to sell half of their equity stake in Spotify. When Swift signed her contract in 2018, she negotiated a clause stating that any sale of UMG’s Spotify shares would result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable. Her “non-recoupable” clause ensures that artists receive that money even if they still owe advances to the label that signed them. (billboard.com/pro/taylor-swi…)
English
Sarah 리트윗함
SURREAL! “folklore” de Taylor Swift se torna o primeiro disco da HISTÓRIA a atingir a marca de 300 semanas consecutivas no Top 100 da Billboard 200. São praticamente SEIS ANOS dentro da parada. Se isso não é sinônimo de sucesso, não sabemos mais o que é.
Português
Sarah 리트윗함
Universal Music Artists Can Reap Millions From Spotify Stock Sale, Thanks to Taylor Swift hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-in…
English
Sarah 리트윗함
What song from @NoahKahan's 'The Great Divide' hurt more than you expected?
English
Sarah 리트윗함
Bro woke up and out of every language he chose to speak facts
English
Sarah 리트윗함
Sarah 리트윗함
Keep in mind, this is an example of a lot of the scouting reports written about players that will be drafted tonight and over the next couple days. To all of you guys about to be picked or go undrafted, know that they are written by people who are incapable of fully understanding your potential, and that few things will bring you a greater smile than reading these reports at the end of a career that far exceeds the limitations within them.
Good luck Boys, welcome to the League
New Heights@newheightshow
Travis reading his pre-draft scouting report will never get old
English
@NoahKahan @fateofgrace Do not listen to the critics! The fans want more!
English
Reviewers saying the albums too long shit I don’t think it’s long enough
English
This man and Mayor Pete should just swap out being President with each other for the next 16 years
Anchor Light Publications@AnchorLightPub
Jon's star is rising. There is a lot to like here.
English
I find this Taydaughter thing very corny in general, and a “daughter” would not allow a narrative that you ‘sued’ her because you’re jealous of her success, when she could’ve cleared it up with once sentence years ago. I like Olivia, I love Taylor, let them be.
English
Sarah 리트윗함
The way so many people can easily see the harm the entertainment industry did to Justin but at the same breath they refuse to see the same thing done to Taylor by this same f**king industry..no one wants to recognise Tay's humanity but have a thousand other excuses for others.
English
I’ll never be gaslit about showgirl. I know the sounds my ears hear when I listen to it. The strings, the bass, the harmonies?!?!? Like the backing vocals of honey, she is going off! People may never get it, but I always will.
English
This album is for anyone who waits for folks to exit the elevator before trying to barge in. If you barge in this album is not for you and only my song hurt somebody is yours to listen to
English
Josh Hutcherson says backlash over saying he doesn't like Taylor Swift's music is "why I don't want to be online"
“All of a sudden it garnered this, ‘F*ck him! He’s a monster! Destroy him! He’s short! He hates her because he’s short!’ It’s just like, whoa! I think she’s great. Her music is not my kind of music. That is why I don’t want to be online."
variety.com/2026/tv/news/j…
English