Taylor Swift Reportedly Launching Her Own Streaming Service

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Taylor Swift Reportedly Launching Her Own Streaming Service

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

When Apple Music launched a couple of years ago, one of its main selling points was that it would be the only streaming service to feature Taylor Swift’s music. (This was after she’d written the company an open letter admonishing it to pay musicians better royalties, something that led to an Apple policy change.) But now it looks like Swift might want to have an even bigger impact on the whole streaming-service landscape. It looks like she’s trying to launch a streaming service of her own.

TMZ reports that Swift has filed documents to form a website “featuring non-downloadable multi-media content in the nature of audio recordings.” She apparently wants to call it Swifties, which is a really terrible name. She’s also planning to launch a line of musical equipment — including guitars, guitar straps, guitar picks, and drumsticks — as well as a series of retreats, educational camps, and online courses.

The last time a country-pop superstar tried to develop his own streaming service, it was Garth Brooks with GhostTunes. Brooks launched GhostTunes in 2014, and it has already failed. Just saying.

UPDATE: Well, whatever Swift has in mind for Swifties, it’s not gonna be a streaming service. As Billboard’s Dan Rys reports:

[A] source confirmed to Billboard that she would not be launching a streaming service, and a closer look at the trademarks reveals a different, more probable, angle for the singer.

What’s that angle, you ask?

[Swifites] looks like a personalized fan club app complete with exclusive merchandise, audio/video/live performances and the possibility of a mobile game of some sort is on the horizon for Swift’s fans, rather than any kind of large-scale streaming service.

Huh. So … OK. That seems a whole lot more viable (if waaaay less interesting) than a Taylor Swift-branded streaming service. Rys goes into pretty extensive detail in his analysis of the trademarks in question, and you can (and should) read the whole thing over at Billboard.

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