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Will Sony Music Follow Swift's Spotify Boycott?
November 18, 2014 at 1:26 PM (PT)
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TAYLOR SWIFT has started the dominos tumbling.
VARIETY is reporting that SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is considering dropping its artists -- which include ONE DIRECTION, PITBULL, CALVIN HARRIS and CARRIE UNDERWOOD -- from all free-music streaming services, which presumably includes SPOTIFY.
SWIFT's DECISION has reportedly promoted the music giant -- #2 behind only UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP in worldwide marketshare -- to revisit the licensing of songs for free, ad-supported music services, according to EVP/CFO KEVIN KELLEHER.
“A lot of conversation has taken place over the last week in the light of SWIFT's decision,” KELLEHER sais at SONY’s investor relations day today, as reported by the WALL STREET JOURNAL.
“The key question is, are the free, ad-supported services taking away from, how quickly and to what extent can we grow those paid services?” KELLEHER said. “What it all really comes down to is how much value are the music company and the artist getting from the different consumption methods?”
At the same time, KELLEHER says SONY is “very encouraged” by the rise in subscription-based streaming services,like GOOGLE's YOUTUBE MUSIC KEY, which is setting a special introductory price of $7.99 per month, as opposed to its normal charge fo $9.99.
SONY said it expects revenue for the music group to be $4.8 billion to $5.2 billion for the 2017-18 fiscal year. That would be up to 8% growth compared with the $4.8 billion projected for the 12 months ending in March 2015.
A representative for SONY offered no comment.

