Report: The Real Reason Taylor Swift Pulled Music From Spotify

Taylor Swift

Monday, Spotify announced that Taylor Swift had pulled all of her albums off its music-on-demand service.

Business Insider spoke to an industry source familiar with firsthand knowledge of why and how this happened, and who is most responsible.

This source blamed one person: Scott Borchetta, Pres/CEO of Swift's record label, Big Machine Label Group.

B-I's source notes Borchetta is trying to sell Big Machine. Reports say he wants $200 million.

Borchetta believes the only metric that will matter to potential buyers is the number of albums the label is able to sell. Our source says Borchetta doesn't think the number of plays Swift's songs have on Spotify will move the needle.

The source says Borchetta believes that pulling Swift's music off Spotify will create "scarcity" online, and drive CD sales and paid downloads.

The source says that Universal Music Group, which distributes Swift's music for Big Machine, tried very hard to convince Borchetta that his thinking is very old-fashioned and that pulling Swift's music off Spotify is a shortsighted move.

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