Taylor Swift was so upset last week that an eight-tracks live album of her music was coming, albeit unauthorized.
“Live from Clear Channel, Stripped 2008” was just part of Swift’s catalog acquired by Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, the latter from Big Machine Records. It was the first time they dove into the library of unreleased material since Braun and a consortium bought Big Machine last year.
Swift, who knows the deal thoroughly, caught wind of the new set being prepared for streaming and blew a gasket. She posted a notice to her fans on Instagram explaining the situation. She called out the Soros family and the Carlyle Group, accusing them of “shameless greed.”
Well, it worked. The stream appeared last week and at first sold 7 copies. SEVEN. Then on Friday and Saturday another 26. The total is 33. THIRTY THREE. That’s it. No one bought it. Plus, it seems only Spotify took it. Apple Music isn’t carrying it. Looks like Swift wins, although it is worth a listen, frankly. But I get her point.
Here’s a screen shot from Buzz Angle aka Alpha Data with the figures. Ignore the release date, which was last Thursday. June 26, 2008 was when it was recorded. BTW, Universal put up YouTube holders for all 8 songs and yielded about 6,000 views total.
