Highlights
- Taylor Swift's song 'Shake It Off' made her a fortune, earning an impressive $84,000 per week on Spotify alone.
- Despite the song's success, Swift decided to remove it from Spotify because she felt the platform didn't value her art enough.
- Swift faced a copyright lawsuit for 'Shake It Off' but ultimately stated that the lyrics were entirely her own idea and the case was dropped.
It takes on song to change a career, or to make an artist filthy rich. Take The Beatles, they were able to make $30 million off one song alone. As for Taylor Swift, the artist has also made a fortune off a certain song, none more powerful than 'Shake It Off', which continues to enjoy massive success today.
Neil Young predicted Taylor Swift's success, and he was right on given her current status. In the following, we're going to take a closer look at how one song alone made Swift a fortune. However, despite her success with Spotify, the artist still decided to pull the song down. We're going to reveal why she pulled it down, and a lawsuit she faced because of the iconic song in the recent years.
Taylor Swift's Song 'Shake It Off' Became One Of The Most Played Songs On Spotify
When truly cannot understate how popular the song 'Shake It Off' continues to be all these years later. Take a quick scroll over on YouTube and it becomes evident very quickly that the song is still trending upwards. Comments continue to pile in, while the view count is at over 3.3 billion.
Not only is the song successful on YouTube, but the same held true on Spotify at one point in time. According to Hypebot, the song became the 35th most played track on the entire platform. As for the payout, the number was even higher than most fan anticipated.
The publication writes, "The company’s claimed average per-stream rate of $0.006 and $0.0084 – a total payout of between $360,000 and $500,000 to rightsholders (Swift’s label and publisher) for that one track. Or, in those last three weeks before its removal, around $84,000 a week."
That's right, Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' was earning $84,000 a week. A huge number for Swift and her team. However, despite the great success, Swift still decided it was best to remove the song from the popular platform.
Despite The Insane Profit, Taylor Swift Took 'Shake It Off' Down From Spotify
When Taylor Swift decided to pull 'Shake It Off' from Spotify, the song was still making a fortune per month. According to Daily Mail, Spotify paid out over $300K to Swift for the one song alone per month. Still, Swift didn't feel as though the platform was handling her music in the best way possible.
The publication writes, "When Taylor Swift decided to pull her music off Spotify earlier this month she said she was unhappy that listeners could stream her songs for free."
"Yet based on the number of streams that her massive hit Shake It Off enjoyed during the month of October, Spotify will have paid out somewhere between $280,000 and $390,000 in royalties for that one song alone."
Surprisingly, Swift felt as though she wasn't getting enough value as an artist from the giant platform. Swift revealed, "I think there should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify," she said.
Although the decision can be viewed as extreme by some, Swift clearly knows what she's doing. The artist continues to dominate the music scene, and has a net worth nearing the $1 billion mark. Ultimately, Taylor knows best...
Taylor Swift Faced Copyright Complications For 'Shake It Off'
It was inevitable given the success of the song. Taylor Swift faced lots of complications, and that included a court battle after it was deemed that Taylor copied the lyrics for 'Shake It Off' from another song.
ET writes, "The artist was sued in 2017 by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler who claim Swift cribbed her lyrics from their 2001 track, “Playas Gon’ Play”, performed by 3LW. In “Shake It Off,” Swift sings, “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” Meanwhile, “Playas Gon’ Play” features the line, “playas, they gonna play” and “haters, they gonna hate.”
Ultimately, it was Taylor Swift herself who issued a statement, claiming that the song was entirely her own idea and that there wasn't any type of influence.
“In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music.”
Swift would go on to reveal that she never even heard the song that was deemed as 'the original'.
“None of the CDs I listened to as a child, or after that, were by 3LW,” she continued. “I have never heard the song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ on the radio, on television, or in any film. The first time I ever heard the song was after this claim was made.”
Ultimately, it seems like the lawsuit was dropped, without any further complications.
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