base talk Critic and musician Ted Gioia writes open letter to Taylor Swift

[Filpo]

...asking her to be the change that's needed to pivot the way music industry works today.

 

Some excerpts:

 

Quote

For the first time in 500 years, an increasing number of people listen to music, and don’t even know the name of the artist or the song. This is not by chance, but is an intentional move driven by powerful interests—with the goal of shifting power from artists who create to technocrats who merely aggregate.
 

The streaming platforms prefer a situation where fan loyalty is to their app, not the musician. And they don’t care if this turns music into something bland, interchangeable, and generic—because their power is enhanced, and that is their highest priority.
 

Musicians only make pennies on new albums—or fractions of a penny—where previously they made dollars. Middlemen flourish (more than ever before!) while creative artists suffer.

Composers are also losing their income streams in the face of endless lawsuits, publishing catalog buyouts, and inroads from AI. Hundreds of well-funded businesses are pursuing multiple plans to disempower them, or make them totally irrelevant.
 

Live music is in even worse shape—venues have never fully recovered from the pandemic. I know so many outstanding musicians who are making less for gigs, unadjusted for inflation, than they were decades ago.
 

The major record labels don’t care. They have lost the ability or interest (or both) to launch and nurture new artists. They would rather buy up the rights to old songs than create new ones. Their obsession with the past is scary.

Indie radio, music media, and other traditional supports of music culture are also in irreversible decline.

Quote

So who will help us?
 

Taylor Swift will help us.
 

Musicians have to help themselves. And they can do it—if they have the right leader. At this moment of crisis, you are that person.
 

I don’t say this flippantly. And it’s not just because you’re the most popular musician on the planet.

You have also shown your willingness to take on the system. Even better, you have gone to battle against power brokers in the music business—and have won!

 

And that’s just a start. You’re also proving that live music not only can survive, but actually flourish in the digital age. Other superstars have taken the easy way out—playing shows for high rollers in Las Vegas or setting up shop on Broadway for tourists and elites.
 

But you didn’t do that, Taylor Swift. You’re bringing live music everywhere, creating the most popular music tour in history. The numbers blow my mind. You’re taking your music to five continents, showing people in a hundred cities that a concert can be the biggest entertainment event of the year.
 

Your total tour revenues are more than the GDP of most nations. In Singapore alone, more people tried to buy concert tickets than the entire population of the country. In the US, 2.4 million people purchased tickets the first day they went on sale—that’s never happened before.
 

By the time your tour ends, you will have generated more demand for live music than any artist in history—with huge beneficial effects for everybody. When you show up in town, it gives a Super Bowl-sized boost to the entire local economy.
 

Along the way, you have made so many other contributions to the music ecosystem. You treat everyone generously—paying out $50 million in bonuses to your team. Even truck drivers got $100,000 bonuses. You’ve also made donations to food banks, employed locals, and have even purchased carbon credits at twice the level of the emissions of your tour.
 

You also revitalized physical music media by convincing a million or so fans to buy their first vinyl album—boosting demand for LPs to levels not seen since the last century. You’ve actually done more to help record stores than the record business.
 

Nobody else is doing these kinds of things with such impact. It’s not even close.
 

So I feel that destiny has blessed us.
 

For the first time in ages, the superstar musician at the top of the hierarchy is brave, independent, generous, and willing to take a hard stand in changing the system. You stand up for artist rights. You stand up for live music. You stand up for people. And you do all this with a grass roots power base that nobody can match—no politician, no billionaire technocrat, and certainly no other performer.
 

Musicians have never had that kind of visionary leader.

Quote

I’m asking you to launch a business—or let’s call it a cooperative, because I think you will want to have other artists participating as stakeholders.
 

I won’t try to spell out all of the details here. (But I’ve shared some suggestions in other places.) I suspect that you already have many ideas of your own about this. And we both know a few trustworthy people who can contribute their own expertise.
 

But the larger picture is crystal clear. We need—and deserve—a trusted organization that nurtures the musical culture, enlists the participation of the best creative artists of our time, and has direct distribution to the fans. Instead of rewarding middleman, it will reallocate cash to showcase and support artistry. The music will come first—instead of last.
 

If it were necessary, I’m confident that you could raise enough money to buy out Spotify or a big record label or a ticketing company. Or all three. Maybe that’s an option, but you don’t need to that.

You can create something better from scratch. You can bring together all of the best things about music into a single operation owned by musicians and run by people who love music—encompassing streaming, physical albums, and live music.
 

You can create a unifying vision. You can build something that’s fair and transparent and gets people excited about music again.
 

Others will join you. And it can happen quickly:
 

Dozens of superstars will follow your lead—because you’ve proven that you can take on the system.

Lesser known artists will also join you, you just need to make it easy for them to participate.

Even some record labels may decide it’s better to work with you and other musicians, rather than partner with the ruling technocrats.
 

And, of course, the fans will join you too. Tens of millions of them, maybe hundreds of millions. They love you and trust you, and will ensure the success of your initiative.

Full letter below. Thoughts?

 

Spoiler

An Open Letter to Taylor Swift

 

 

 

Dear Taylor Swift,
 

Please forgive this letter from a total stranger.  So many people must be calling you up for favors and asking for your time, as Joni Mitchell once sang about so persuasively.
 

I’m one of those people. I am going to ask a favor.
 

But not for me. I’m asking you to do a favor for the music. 

 

---

I’m pretty sure you don’t know me. I’m almost as old as your father—not quite, but he and I are part of the same generation. I’ve devoted my life to music, but mostly jazz, a niche field with niche concerns, but where I get to spend time with other people who deeply love music. In my own small way, I’ve tried to be an honest broker, working to earn trust and promote a fair and healthy music ecosystem.
 

That’s the one thing we have most in common. We both love the music.
 

We want to see it flourish—not just for ourselves, but for other, better reasons. We want see it flourish for the good of all musicians. And for the benefit of the fans. And for our communities. And, most of all, for the future. 
 

More than anybody, you have the power to make this happen. You are the right person to create the change we need, and now is the right time.
 

And we so desperately need help:
 

• For the first time in 500 years, an increasing number of people listen to music, and don’t even know the name of the artist or the song. This is not by chance, but is an intentional move driven by powerful interests—with the goal of shifting power from artists who create to technocrats who merely aggregate.
   

• The streaming platforms prefer a situation where fan loyalty is to their app, not the musician. And they don’t care if this turns music into something bland, interchangeable, and generic—because their power is enhanced, and that is their highest priority.
   

• Musicians only make pennies on new albums—or fractions of a penny—where previously they made dollars. Middlemen flourish (more than ever before!) while creative artists suffer.
   

• Composers are also losing their income streams in the face of endless lawsuits, publishing catalog buyouts, and inroads from AI. Hundreds of well-funded businesses are pursuing multiple plans to disempower them, or make them totally irrelevant.
   

• Live music is in even worse shape—venues have never fully recovered from the pandemic. I know so many outstanding musicians who are making less for gigs, unadjusted for inflation, than they were decades ago.
   

• The major record labels don’t care. They have lost the ability or interest (or both) to launch and nurture new artists. They would rather buy up the rights to old songs than create new ones. Their obsession with the past is scary.
   

• Indie radio, music media, and other traditional supports of music culture are also in irreversible decline.

Everything feels broken everywhere, all at once.

These are huge challenges. Never before in modern memory has the music ecosystem been so damaged, so stagnant, so exploited by outsiders.

Who can we turn to? Who will fix this?

The streaming platforms will not help us.

They have proven again and again that they don’t love the music, just the cash. It’s not just a question of how poorly they pay musicians—it’s also the other moves they’ve taken to kill fan loyalty, boost generic AI-driven sounds, manipulate listeners, and make music less exciting and independent.

The record labels will not help us.

I don’t trust them, and you probably don’t either. They should be allies of musicians and music lovers. But they decided to align themselves with the streamers instead. That’s a foolish move, because the streamers are natural enemies of labels. Their partnership will have an unhappy ending. But, in the meantime, musicians and fans pay the price for this unholy alliance.

Silicon Valley and other technocrats won’t help us.

They suck cash out of the music economy, and use it to support other projects. Apple would give music away for free if it would sell more devices. Spotify uses its music-driven cash flow to invest in podcasts and audiobooks and all sorts of non-music ventures. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that ten thousand musicians live on peanuts so Spotify can cut a deal with Joe Rogan.

Radio won’t help us.

Radio stations are dying, and those that survive are almost all corporatized, streamlined, and formula-driven in a way we’ve never seen before in the history of broadcasting.

Newspapers and media outlets won’t help us.

They are downsizing and disappearing. Local coverage of music is almost non-existent now in most cities, and even national coverage of established stars is in a tailspin. It doesn’t help that almost every well-known media brand in music and entertainment is owned by one company. (Go read the bios of the people in charge, and tell me how much you trust them to create a healthy music culture.)

The unions won’t help us.

Hollywood unions are much more powerful than musician unions. For various reasons, musicians have never been very good at collective bargaining. Hence traditional tactics of labor organization are unlikely to reverse the poisonous trends outlined above.

The government won’t help us.

Whenever they pass legislation about music it’s designed to help the corporations. For many years, Disney and other entertainment companies exerted the most influence on these laws. More recently Google, Apple, and other tech companies have shaped legislation. But musicians and music lovers have never had a say in these things.
 

So who will help us?
 

Taylor Swift will help us.
 

Musicians have to help themselves. And they can do it—if they have the right leader. At this moment of crisis, you are that person.

---

I don’t say this flippantly. And it’s not just because you’re the most popular musician on the planet.

You have also shown your willingness to take on the system. Even better, you have gone to battle against power brokers in the music business—and have won!

 

 

Taylor Swift (photo by Eve Rinaldi)

 

And that’s just a start. You’re also proving that live music not only can survive, but actually flourish in the digital age. Other superstars have taken the easy way out—playing shows for high rollers in Las Vegas or setting up shop on Broadway for tourists and elites.
 

But you didn’t do that, Taylor Swift. You’re bringing live music everywhere, creating the most popular music tour in history. The numbers blow my mind. You’re taking your music to five continents, showing people in a hundred cities that a concert can be the biggest entertainment event of the year.
 

Your total tour revenues are more than the GDP of most nations. In Singapore alone, more people
tried to buy concert tickets than the entire population of the country. In the US, 2.4 million people purchased tickets the first day they went on sale—that’s never happened before.
 

By the time your tour ends, you will have generated more demand for live music than any artist in history—with huge beneficial effects for everybody. When you show up in town, it gives a Super Bowl-sized boost to the entire local economy.

 

 

Taylor Swift in Minneapolis (photo by Michael Hicks)

 

Along the way, you have made so many other contributions to the music ecosystem. You treat everyone generously—paying out $50 million in bonuses to your team. Even truck drivers got $100,000 bonuses. You’ve also made donations to food banks, employed locals, and have even purchased carbon credits at twice the level of the emissions of your tour.
 

You also revitalized physical music media by convincing a million or so fans to buy their first vinyl album—boosting demand for LPs to levels not seen since the last century. You’ve actually done more to help record stores than the record business.
 

Nobody else is doing these kinds of things with such impact. It’s not even close.
 

So I feel that destiny has blessed us.
 

For the first time in ages, the superstar musician at the top of the hierarchy is brave, independent, generous, and willing to take a hard stand in changing the system. You stand up for artist rights. You stand up for live music. You stand up for people. And you do all this with a grass roots power base that nobody can match—no politician, no billionaire technocrat, and certainly no other performer.

Musicians have never had that kind of visionary leader.

---

But it has happened elsewhere. And we can learn from this.
 

Back in 1919, the four most powerful creative visionaries in Hollywood decided to unite the artists. That was even the name they gave their business: United Artists.

 

 

United Artists, 1919

The people behind it were not business executives. They weren’t investors or financiers. The four people who founded United Artists were the three most popular movie stars in Hollywood (Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks) and the most famous director (D.W. Griffith).
 

They proved that artists can control their own destiny.
 

Of course, that battle is never over. Even now, creative people are on strike Hollywood—they are demanding a fair and honest system. I think they will prevail. There’s a long history in Hollywood of artists uniting to confront the powerful.
 

But that’s rarely happened in music.
 

We have had some attempts. The Beatles launched Apple Records, but they couldn’t even solve their own differences—so they never had the impact on the music ecosystem they might have had. In more recent years, TIDAL seemed like it could be the answer, but the same musicians who launched it eventually made their peace with the existing power structure, and never achieved the transformative change they might have created.
 

You can be that change, Taylor Swift.

---

I’m asking you to launch a business—or let’s call it a cooperative, because I think you will want to have other artists participating as stakeholders.
 

I won’t try to spell out all of the details here. (But I’ve shared some suggestions in other places.) I suspect that you already have many ideas of your own about this. And we both know a few trustworthy people who can contribute their own expertise.
 

But the larger picture is crystal clear. We need—and deserve—a trusted organization that nurtures the musical culture, enlists the participation of the best creative artists of our time, and has direct distribution to the fans. Instead of rewarding middleman, it will reallocate cash to showcase and
support artistry. The music will come first—instead of last.
 

If it were necessary, I’m confident that you could raise enough money to buy out Spotify or a big record label or a ticketing company. Or all three. Maybe that’s an option, but you don’t need to that.
 

You can create something better from scratch. You can bring together all of the best things about music into a single operation owned by musicians and run by people who love music—encompassing streaming, physical albums, and live music.
 

You can create a unifying vision. You can build something that’s fair and transparent and gets people excited about music again.
 

Others will join you. And it can happen quickly:
 

• Dozens of superstars will follow your lead—because you’ve proven that you can take on the system.
   

• Lesser known artists will also join you, you just need to make it easy for them to participate.
   

• Even some record labels may decide it’s better to work with you and other musicians, rather than partner with the ruling technocrats.
   

• And, of course, the fans will join you too. Tens of millions of them, maybe hundreds of millions. They love you and trust you, and will ensure the success of your initiative.
   

Taylor Swift, you are the one person who can make this happen. I believe this is your destiny.
 

Don’t let us down.
 

With warmest regards,
 

Ted Gioia
The Honest Broker

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Filpo

[YellowRibbon]

Hopefully Taylor won't jeopardize her own success for the sake of the "industry", she already took stances against the current model of streaming in 2015 and not only executives but also other artists gave her sh*t for speaking out (calling her greedy and sh*t). 

[Badgalbriel]

Mother Theresa Swift

[FolkLover1989]

Taylor Swift tried

She spoke it so much during 1989 era that people started calling her money hungry and started hating her more

 

 

The matter of the thing is streaming or not , she wouldn't have been affected much besides 1989 doing couple million less in pure sales but even more in streaming and even better chart peaks.

 

 

So , simple truth is even she can't do anything right now. If musicians and press supported her then the royalty rates would be very different 

 

 

Mind you not even a single big artist came in support of Taylor so obviously she brought back her catalog to Spotify when she saw the trend changing and people stop caring about small artist 

Edited September 15, 2023 by FolkLover1989

[venuss]

She doesn't owe anyone **** ffs

[vale9001]

see when your legacy is music, artists rights, battles for a more fair system and not wigs on Vmas  

Edited September 15, 2023 by vale9001

[FolkLover1989]

1 minute ago, vale9001 said:

see when your legacy is music and artists rights and not wigs 

So many artists nowadays are concerned about their masters and speak up about it so frequently 

 

You can see the tides changing this decade. Taylor made people aware even those who use to not care much

Edited September 15, 2023 by FolkLover1989

[Lemon]

“For the first time in ages, the superstar musician at the top of the hierarchy is brave, independent, generous, and willing to take a hard stand in changing the system. You stand up for artist rights. You stand up for live music. You stand up for people. And you do all this with a grass roots power base that nobody can match—no politician, no billionaire technocrat, and certainly no other performer.” 
This is ****!ng great legacy indeed 

[Blue Rose]

9 minutes ago, YellowRibbon said:

Hopefully Taylor won't jeopardize her own success for the sake of the "industry", she already took stances against the current model of streaming in 2015 and not only executives but also other artists gave her sh*t for speaking out (calling her greedy and sh*t). 

Who did that? She was praised across the board  

[sasashite]

What is he asking? 

[Miss Americana]

19 minutes ago, Blue Rose said:

Who did that? She was praised across the board  

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/11/spotify-ceo-to-taylor-swift-is-6-million-enough/18854607/

 

https://thegreyhound.org/2125/opinions/taylor-swift-pulling-her-music-from-spotify-is-blatant-greed/

 

https://qz.com/478420/taylor-swifts-fight-against-big-music-doesnt-make-her-a-champion-of-the-creative-class

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-is-wrong-about-spotify-2015-5?amp

 

 

 

 

This doesn't include the SEVERAL 100k+ liked tweet calling her greedy, money hungry, calculated etc...

Edited September 15, 2023 by Miss Americana

[Rep2000]

10 minutes ago, Blue Rose said:

Who did that? She was praised across the board  

https://www.vulture.com/2014/11/why-taylor-swift-is-nuts-for-leaving-spotify.html

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.thefader.com/2014/11/03/twitter-reacts-to-taylor-swifts-breakup-with-spotify

was motivated by greed, just a way to sell more records:

Taylor swift removed all of her albums on spotify and that is just greedy and rude
— Kelsey DiVirgilio (@kdivirgilio) November 3, 2014

Edited September 15, 2023 by Rep2000

[BLΔCKP!NK]

ain’t nobody reading all that. happy for him or sorry that happened 

[Redstreak]

13 minutes ago, Miss Americana said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/11/spotify-ceo-to-taylor-swift-is-6-million-enough/18854607/

 

https://thegreyhound.org/2125/opinions/taylor-swift-pulling-her-music-from-spotify-is-blatant-greed/

 

https://qz.com/478420/taylor-swifts-fight-against-big-music-doesnt-make-her-a-champion-of-the-creative-class

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-is-wrong-about-spotify-2015-5?amp

 

This doesn't include the SEVERAL 100k+ liked tweet calling her greedy, money hungry, calculated etc...

The way they always try to revise history 💀

[Blue Rose]

13 minutes ago, Miss Americana said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/11/spotify-ceo-to-taylor-swift-is-6-million-enough/18854607/

 

https://thegreyhound.org/2125/opinions/taylor-swift-pulling-her-music-from-spotify-is-blatant-greed/

 

https://qz.com/478420/taylor-swifts-fight-against-big-music-doesnt-make-her-a-champion-of-the-creative-class

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-is-wrong-about-spotify-2015-5?amp

 

This doesn't include the SEVERAL 100k+ liked tweet calling her greedy, money hungry, calculated etc...

 

12 minutes ago, Rep2000 said:

https://www.vulture.com/2014/11/why-taylor-swift-is-nuts-for-leaving-spotify.html

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.thefader.com/2014/11/03/twitter-reacts-to-taylor-swifts-breakup-with-spotify

was motivated by greed, just a way to sell more records:

Taylor swift removed all of her albums on spotify and that is just greedy and rude
— Kelsey DiVirgilio (@kdivirgilio) November 3, 2014

Dam Spotify had an entire PR machine against her

But i think that move was still an overwhelmingly positive experience. She helped a lot of artists 

[WildHeart]

19 minutes ago, Miss Americana said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/11/11/spotify-ceo-to-taylor-swift-is-6-million-enough/18854607/

 

https://thegreyhound.org/2125/opinions/taylor-swift-pulling-her-music-from-spotify-is-blatant-greed/

 

https://qz.com/478420/taylor-swifts-fight-against-big-music-doesnt-make-her-a-champion-of-the-creative-class

 

https://www.thecalifornianpaper.com/2014/11/taylor-swifts-greed-costs-fans-on-spotify/

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-is-wrong-about-spotify-2015-5?amp

 

This doesn't include the SEVERAL 100k+ liked tweet calling her greedy, money hungry, calculated etc...

Not miss Blue Rose trying to rewrite the history and getting clocked again 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Artistofthedecade

[ugo]

What are they asking her to do ?

[Lemon]

5 minutes ago, Blue Rose said:

 

Dam Spotify had an entire PR machine against her

But i think that move was still an overwhelmingly positive experience. She helped a lot of artists 

Yes in the long run, but actually reading all of this at the moment again would have made me scared if I was her back then. 

[Taylena]

3 minutes ago, ugo said:

What are they asking her to do ?

He wants her to open her own label in a system that pays artists fairly, he also talks about her maybe buying Spotify and recruit top artist to her self-made label. 

[ugo]

1 minute ago, Taylena said:

He wants her to open her own label in a system that pays artists fairly, he also talks about her maybe buying Spotify and recruit top artist to her self-made label. 

That sounds ambitious knowing that most label started by artists just fail. 

[Blue Rose]

7 minutes ago, Lemon said:

Yes in the long run, but actually reading all of this at the moment again would have made me scared if I was her back then. 

As a stan you guys probably focused too much on the negative, which I understand. Everyone on atrl was clapping for her tho and I remember seeing the report on tv and they were praising her too. Oh well, it all worked out for the best

[Truth Teller]

12 minutes ago, ugo said:

What are they asking her to do ?

 

6 minutes ago, Taylena said:

He wants her to open her own label in a system that pays artists fairly, he also talks about her maybe buying Spotify and recruit top artist to her self-made label. 

Is it that or is he asking her to start some sort of Performing Rights Organization / Collective Management Organization? Or like her own Tidal? Or something like Bandcamp where artists sell and offer streaming kind of directly without a middle man? It's all rather confusing (and delusional)

[dussel_06]

Tidal did it but failed miserable. They were called greedy and stuff… lol

[Illuminati]

I get that Taylor is a huge force on her own but considering how much she's already done I would rather see someone else lead the way and she could then join them in support of that

[ugo]

13 minutes ago, Truth Teller said:

 

Is it that or is he asking her to start some sort of Performing Rights Organization / Collective Management Organization? Or like her own Tidal? Or something like Bandcamp where artists sell and offer streaming kind of directly without a middle man? It's all rather confusing (and delusional)

I think it's basically a label and streaming service owned by artists that would be more fair and promote everyone equally. I mean it's what Tidal tried to be (streaming service) but failed because it's main event only featured already established massive artists. Whereas smaller alt artists did not have a representation.

 

Also most labels started by big artists are a subdivision of the a bigger label.

 

If any artist can launch something like this it would be Taylor. There is no better management and vision than Taylor's team. 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by ugo