American Music Awards: Taylor Swift defends albums

American Music Awards: Taylor Swift defends albums


Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ came out too late for the star to be nominated at this year’s edition of the American Music Awards (AMAs) - though you can expect her to own next year’s ceremony.

Still, the AMAs found something to award her with in the Diana Ross and Dick Clark Award for Excellence which is a new lifetime-achievement prize, and Swift made sure to reiterate her message around the purchase of music, a message that alongside her incredible album sales earned her the cover of TIME Magazine.

The musician said: “By going out and investing in music and albums you’re saying you believe in the same thing that I believe in: that music is valuable and that music should be consumed as albums, and that albums should be consumed as art and appreciated.”

It’s hard to fault her for the statement and the sentiment, and after all she did just sell over 2 million copies in the struggling US music market, but it’s also hard not to say that perhaps her own success is preventing her to see what is happening to the music industry at large. While ownership of music will never go away completely, access-based consumption is where the lion’s share of the revenues is going to be.


(Andrea Leonelli)