In November 2014, music fans everywhere went crazy when Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalog of music records off streaming service, Spotify.
Fast forward five months, and Taylor Swift has dealt a further blow to Spotify by announcing her return to streaming on Jay Z's service, Tidal.
Newly taken over by the multimillionaire rapper as part of a $56 million deal for its parent Aspiro, Tidal now offers users the entire music catalog of Taylor Swift… almost. Despite showing its image and songs on the website's service, Swift's multi-platinum selling album, "1989," will not be available to its users.
Tidal is a premium music streaming service, which requires users to pay out $19.99 every month, if they want to experience "high fidelity sound quality, high definition music videos and expertly curated editorial." Her music is also available on streaming platforms Beats Music and Rhapsody, which requires payment like Tidal.
This backs up comments Swift made throughout last year, saying that musicians should be compensated appropriately for the music they produce.
"It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is," Swift wrote when talking about the value of music, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, last July.
In a statement, a representative for Taylor Swift told MTV that "1989" wasn't available, saying "1989 is NOT available on any streaming service. I realize the image appears there but it does not stream on their platform."
"Big Machine Records believes music has value and we do not believe Taylor's music should be made available for free," the statement added.
Aspiro is just the latest venture added to Jay Z's impressive business profile, which includes previous dabbles in the retail, music and beverage industries.
Currently, the Tidal High Fidelity streaming service is live in 31 countries – including the U.S., U.K. and many European countries – and plans on launching in six more countries soon. The service's library contains more than 25 million songs, and 75,000 music videos.
Sheeran's taste for 'Gingerbread'
Meanwhile guitarist and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has just announced the set up and launch of his own record label, Gingerbread.
Sheeran announced the plans for the label on Australian radio network, Nova FM, while he was touring the country this week.
The first artist signed up to Gingerbread? Musician Jamie Lawson, who is the support act on Sheeran's tour.
In terms of signing more acts, Sheeran said he'd focus on Jamie first: "I'm gonna make sure Jamie blows the hell up, and then I'll start looking."
"Jamie was pretty much the catalyst for this. I saw Jamie, I heard the songs, I was like why is no one paying attention to this. I'll just do it myself." Sheeran added on 'Smallzy's Surgery' show, on Nova FM.