Taylor Swift seized the opportunity to have another pop at music streaming site Spotify at last night's American Music Awards. The singer, who arrived at the ceremony to perform her new single Blank Space and accept her award for the Dick Clark Award for Excellence which as far as we can tell is basically just an excuse to give Taylor an award on the night, took the time to argue that the album as a form should be “respected”.
Accepting her prize from Diana Ross, who Swift said “stood up for herself so many times, in a time when it was not popular for a woman to stand up for herself,” the country star turned pop giant didn't hold back. We all knew where she was going now, as she continued her clear dig at the company after withdrawing her entire back catalogue from the site last month.
“To the fans who went out and bought over a million copies of my last three albums, what you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you're saying you believe in the same thing I believe in - that music is valuable and that music should be consumed in albums and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated," said Swift, in the latest round against Spotify.
Last week it emerged that YouTube views of Taylor's video have doubled since she swiped her music from Spotify with her recent smash Shake It Off rocking up a further 35 million hits a day, three months after its debut. Her sales figures haven't hurt either. 1989 became the fastest selling album of the decade earlier this month and also became her third to sell a million copies in its first week of release. With Taylor's career going from strength to strength without Spotify, will other leading artists follow suit?
Taylor Swift slams Spotify again (Adriana M. Barazza/WENN)
But Taylor wasn't just at the American Music Awards to make her stance on musical politics. She also opened the show with her magnificent new record-breaking single Blank Space, reviving her crazed woman scorned from new video for the stage. The single knocked her previous chart-topper Shake It Off from the top of the Billboard Hot 100 last week, making her the first female to succeed her own number one.
Watch her full speech below…
