News article courtesy of RollingStone.com
Taylor Swift’s new album, Reputation, is expected to join her other albums on all streaming services this week, The New York Times reports. The singer initially withheld the album from streaming since the day it was released on November 10th.
Despite the decision to temporarily keep Reputation from streaming services, in its debut week the album sold more than 1.2 million copies in the U.S., giving the album the largest sales week of 2017, according to Billboard. And while it was not available for streaming, it was available for purchase via digital retailers, including Apple’s iTunes.
Swift has had a tenuous relationship with streaming services in the past. She pulled her material from all streaming platforms in 2014. At the time, she called the platforms a “grand experiment,” and she was apprehensive about how the platforms would pay artists. However, in 2015, she made 1989 available on Apple Music following the company’s policy changes on how they would pay artists, though she didn’t make an exclusive deal with Apple.
Despite her initially holding back Reputation from streaming, earlier this year she decided to release her entire back catalog to all streaming services. “In celebration of 1989 selling over 10 million albums worldwide and the RIAA’s 100 million song certification, Taylor wants to thank her fans by making her entire back catalog available to all streaming services tonight at midnight,” Swift’s management team tweeted via Taylor Nation at the time.
It’s unclear what the reasoning was behind the pause in Reputation’s streaming availability, but the record is now expected to be released on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and other services on Friday.
