MIGHT TAYLOR SWIFT be pop music’s Alexander the Great? Her power in the music industry is undeniable; she has built a vast empire and amassed great riches. She is one of only two superstars who can still sell enormous amounts of music on CD (the other being Adele). Her last tour was the second-highest-grossing of 2018. Now she is seeking to conquer a new world: streaming.

There was a period when Ms Swift was at war with streaming services. In 2014, after writing in the Wall Street Journal about Spotify’s unsatisfactory payments to artists, she withdrew her back catalogue from the platform. In 2015 she forced Apple to pay artists for music played during users’ three-month free trial period by threatening to pull her “1989” album. She returned her music to Spotify in June 2017, but when she released “Reputation” in November 2017 she waited three weeks before making it available to stream in order to maximise physical and download sales.

Her seventh album, “Lover”, was released on streaming services and in physical form simultaneously on August 23rd. Why did Ms Swift relent? The first answer is probably that she had won all her battles. While Spotify’s royalty rates are never going to match those from physical sales, it can still generate tremendous revenues for popular artists. And, on signing to Universal last year, Ms Swift was promised that when the company sold its stake in Spotify, it would distribute the money to its artists, without that payment being counted against any debts they had to the label. She had taken on those she felt were penalising musicians and she had beaten them. Now was the time to ally with her former foes.