Everyone's favorite optimist is taking a stance on the always-trending topic of free music in her industry. Taylor Swift recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, offering up a hopeful view of the future of music as well as her opinion on recorded music and how it should be given to the fans.
"In recent years," Swift writes, "you've probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet...is that they realize their worth and ask for it."
While sitting as a mere piece of plastic, vinyl or mp3 for others, the BFF of fellow pop star Ed Sheeran assures readers that an album is made up of much, much more –– "heart and soul."
"Music is art, and art is important and rare," she writes, touching on the subject of piracy within the record industry, something that has completed exhausted the business over the years.
"Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art."
Equating albums to relationships, where some stick around and some can be seen as simple flings, the "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" declares that the fans who purchase albums today are doing so because the music "hits them like an arrow through the heart" and also aids in making them feel less lonely.
She does admit, however, that it's important to keep the fans guessing and surprised. Truthfully, in the age of YouTube, one could argue why attend a live show if it's possible to see it online for free? To this, Swift urges artists to create innovative ways of keeping their shows fresh and fun. "I walked out onstage every night of my stadium tour last year knowing almost every fan had already seen the show online," she says. "To continue to show them something they had never seen before, I brought out dozens of special guest performers to sing their hits with me...I hope the next generation's artists will continue to think of inventive ways of keeping their audiences on their toes, as challenging as that might be."
The singer rounds out her op-ed by urging new artists to interact with their fans, because that, she predicts, will be the key for getting deals in the future.
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