Bilder: Ny vaxdocka på Taylor
11-årigt fan sjunger IKYWT
In this moment now, capture it, remember it
För några veckor sedan fyllde TSS fyra år och jag glömde av. De senaste åren har jag alltid lagt upp ett litet jubileumsinlägg, för så många år har gått och vi är fortfarande igång. Det var något jag var stolt över – att vi år efter år har flitigt uppdaterat för att hålla hemsidan i rullning. TSS brukade vara något jag älskade att uppdatera. Jag älskade att sprida hennes musik och jag älskade att det var hemsidan som förde samman så många människor.
Jag var inte det första fanet i Sverige, det är jag mycket medveten om, men jag vill fortfarande tro att TSS har varit en samlingsplats för så många fans i Sverige. Utan TSS skulle inte jag ha träffat människor som jag idag kallar mina vänner som bor över hela landet. Och jag vill också tro att det var TSS som satte Sverige på kartan i Taylorvärlden. När vi fick möjligheten att videochatta med Taylor var något av de mest nervösa, spännande och bästa ögonblick av våra liv.
Idag har vi ingen kontakt med någon från Taylors management. Jordan har inte svarat på våra mejl sedan 2012 och alla tecken tyder på att han inte längre jobbar för Taylor. Idag har Universal Music Swedens facebooksida om Taylor 5000 likes, medan TSS inte kommer upp till över 300 läsare per dag vid tillfället. Inte en enda gång har deras facebooksida gett någon som helst credit till oss – när vi är säkra att de flera gånger hittar nyheter på vår sida. Något som vi tycker är oerhört orättvist, när vi har kämpat sedan 2009 och uppdaterat varje dag och lagt ner så mycket tid på denna sida.
Vi tycker helt enkelt inte det är roligt att uppdatera längre. Nu ser vi TSS mer som ett jobb som måste göras. Det är ett ansvar som vi inte kan ge upp, för även om vi inte tycker om att uppdatera längre finns det något inom oss som inte kan sluta. Vi älskar TSS. Vi älskar er. Och vi älskar Taylor. Men ibland räcker det inte till och ibland prioriterar vi annat.
Vi älskar Taylor, det gör i med hela våra hjärtan. Men nu, fyra år senare, har hon fortfarande inte kommit hit. Vi har fortfarande inte fått träffa henne och vi har fortfarande inte fått prata med henne och tacka henne för allt. Det gör oss frustrerade. Det finns inte något mer vi vill göra än att få prata med henne i verkligheten. Och det hela med att vi har spenderat så mycket tid på TSS, så tycker vi att vi förtjänar det. Det är så vi känner. Vi tycker inte längre att det är kul, för vi känner att vi inte är motiverade eller känner att vi uppdaterar för någonting. År efter år, timmar efter timmar, så får vi inte mycket tillbaka.
Vi (Andrea och Felicia) kommer att dra oss tillbaka i slutet på 2014. Vi kommer fortfarande stå som ägare till TSS, men ni kommer inte se oss uppdatera lika mycket som vanligt. Redan nu på det sistone har Emmy uppdaterat mer och mer, någon som vi också vill säga ett stort tack till. Du har varit väldigt hjälpsam och även en god vän, och vi hoppas att du vill fortsätta att hjälpa oss med sidan i framtiden.
Därför söker vi nu nya hjälpbloggare, precis som Emmy är. Vi kommer alltså fortsätta uppdatera i några månader till, men vi kommer successivt uppdatera mindre. Vi kommer att vara kvar på hemsidan och fortfarande ha hand om de stora nyheter - såsom albumnyheter och turnéuppdateringar. Vi kommer också att fortfarande ha hand om TSS-mejlen och all kontakt på det sättet.
Att uppdatera en hemsida är inte enkelt. Det krävs att du är detaljerad, kreativ, noggrann och mest av allt motiverad. Vi som uppdaterar TSS är perfektionister när det kommer till inläggen – de måste se ut på ett visst sätt för att se professionell ut. Det är viktigt för oss. Under våren kommer vi att välja ut två stycken som vi lär upp. Förmodligen blir det en ganska lång process eftersom TSS är något som ligger nära våra hjärtan! Därför söker vi efter seriösa bloggare som inte vill sluta uppdatera efter en kort tid och som framförallt kan prioritera uppdatering. Det krävs mycket tid för att hålla en fansida uppdaterad.
Om du är intresserad av att bli en hjälpbloggare på TSS, skicka ett mejl till taylorswiftsweden@hotmail.com med följande information:
Namn:
Ålder:
Personlig blogg?:
Motivering (förklara varför du vill bli hjälpbloggare, har du skrivit innan?, erfarenhet osv)
Stora kramar,
Andrea
Upplevelser från Berlin den 7:e februari
The machine behind Taylor Swift
The machine behind Taylor Swift
Country music has sometimes ignored international markets. When Scott Borchetta signed up the 15-year-old Taylor Swift, however, he envisaged her winning fans thousands of miles beyond Nashville. “I was always fascinated by artists that could appeal globally,” he says. “So my goal with Taylor from the beginning was that she was going to be a global superstar.”
Almost a decade later, Mr Borchetta, president and chief executive of Big Machine Label Group, has very much achieved this ambition. Ms Swift, now 24, is now one of music’s biggest stars, having sold almost 30m albums of country-tinged pop, more than 6.5m of these outside the US. Her latest world tour, which involved nearly 70 North American performances, arrives in London for five arena shows next month, with a further night in Berlin. She is also nominated in four categories at next Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
“We started the label in 2005, and Taylor was my first signing, so that was a good day,” Mr Borchetta says, with some understatement.
The success of Ms Swift and other signings such as The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts has made the innovative Big Machine one of the most successful independent music groups in the US, at a time when the domestic market share of “indies” has risen to almost 35 per cent in spite of broader record company consolidation.
Mr Borchetta says: “We were able to attain momentum quickly, and to add great executives and great artists. We have three labels in the group, a publishing company and merchandising, and there’s a lot of other branding opportunities. But if we don’t have great music, nothing else matters.”
Born in Burbank, California, 51-year-old Mr Borchetta has the music business in his blood. He followed his father into record promotion, moving to Nashville and progressing to MCA Records, where he marketed such artists as Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood. Even when he moved to an executive role at another big label, DreamWorks, he continued a parallel passion for car racing, even becoming a Nascar truck champion. Off the track, Mr Borchetta has shown a similar boldness in the outspoken position he has taken on one of the most sensitive industry issues.
Most labels embrace, or at least accept, the now palpable swing away from track and album downloading towards streaming, via services such as Spotify and Deezer. Mr Borchetta, however, is wary that they might be cannibalising sales, and is not shy of acting accordingly. When Ms Swift’s most recent studio album Red was released in the autumn of 2012, it remained unavailable on streaming services for well over six months. The decision was described as “flat out stupid” on one technology website, and some of her fans, already immersed in streaming culture, were similarly upset.
The decision looked substantially less questionable when Red sold 1.21m copies in its first week in America alone, the biggest opening tally there for more than a decade. “I have real concerns with the biggest companies licensing their catalogues to any streaming service that switches on,” says Mr Borchetta. “I think that devalues music, and so it’s really important that record companies and content providers around the world make sure that we’re holding on to . . . value. It takes a lot of time and effort and money and talent to do this, and if we start giving it all away for fractions of pennies, we’re not going to be able to do it any more.”
Ms Swift’s pre-eminence in the market enabled her label to withhold those digital rights from the streaming services. Why rush to embrace Spotify when tracking company Nielsen SoundScan reports that digital sales of her tracks in the US now total 68m? Nevertheless, Big Machine’s decision to stream or not to stream is taken on a case-by-case basis. Its newer breakthroughs, such as the pop-leaning country duo Florida Georgia Line, have enjoyed massive US success in streams, as well as downloads and CD sales.
Mr Borchetta made another bold move in 2012, when he agreed a groundbreaking deal with the largest owner of radio stations in the US, Clear Channel. US radio stations have traditionally paid a royalty to songwriters and the music publishers that represent them for using their music, but performers received nothing, unless it was played online. Ms Swift writes all of her material, occasionally in partnership with other composers, so was earning the songwriter royalty but nothing as the recording artist.
The deal with Clear Channel means that Big Machine and its performers are now paid a proportion of the broadcaster’s advertising revenue when it plays their music through conventional radio too. Clear Channel’s concession on a point that has long been controversial for musicians was seen as a way of limiting the royalties incurred by its growing online business at the cost of paying more for its traditional broadcasting. Other label owners, including Warner Music, have since made similar pacts with Clear Channel to secure these performance royalties.
The trendsetting Big Machine, meanwhile, has persuaded other radio groups to follow Clear Channel’s example. “I believe most broadcasters know that performance royalties are part of the future, as more and more are or will be broadcasting digitally,” says Mr Borchetta. Some commentators have interpreted the more pop-flavoured recordings in Ms Swift’s output as an attempt to outgrow country music. Mr Borchetta denies the allegation, but makes no apologies for attempting to reach the widest possible audience with all of his artists.
“While her music has definitely become more worldly, she lives in Nashville and there’s always going to be a sense of that running through her music. I encourage her to make what she wants to make, so the next record could be anything from pure pop to bluegrass, who knows.”
Big Machine’s three labels enjoy the benefits of a distribution deal with Universal Music, whose chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge praises Mr Borchetta effusively. “Scott is that rare executive who combines great creative instincts with the focus and discipline of a successful entrepreneur,” he says. But even as it straddles the divide between indies and majors, the company is the frequent subject of rumours that it will be sold. Mr Borchetta declares that this would only happen for “an outrageous sum which also absolutely guaranteed our independence operationally”. He adds: “I don’t see that offer coming in.”
Country roads lead overseas for Nashville signings
Scott Borchetta, Big Machine’s president and chief executive, says it became obvious to him in 2008 that cracking foreign markets would require a big commitment by the label and its star act, Taylor Swift. The realisation came when he visited London that year to strike an international distribution deal with Universal Music Group. Ms Swift has subsequently gone abroad at least three to four times a year.
That deal was overseen by Lucian Grainge, now chairman and CEO of UMG, and by Max Hole, now chairman and CEO of UMG’s international division. Mr Grainge says Mr Borchetta has “transformed Big Machine into a global music powerhouse”. As The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts prepare to return to Europe, Mr Borchetta is targeting an international audience for another Big Machine signing, a Southern rock band called the Cadillac Three.
“We have a mantra here that we’re right until proven wrong,” he says. “I want to give [international] listeners a chance to decide, and if they tell us, ‘You know what, we don’t like that,’ then OK, we’ve got it. I tell my artists all the time: ‘If you want to go just once, go on vacation. If you’re not going to come back, they’re going to forget about you.’”
Tävling på Stockholm Globe Arenas
Forbes lista: Högsta betalade musikerna under 30
LA Times intervju
Taylor Swift energetically paced the room of her West Hollywood hotel on a recent visit to Los Angeles."I'm trying to outrun the jet lag," she said with a smile, looking far from ragged in her matching purple sweater and skirt. Before landing in L.A., she'd flown from Australia to London, then on to Nashville on her way back from the latest leg of her "Red" tour.But Swift, 24, is nothing if not game to be front and center for every facet of her career, so she committed to the schlep to L.A. for a Directors Guild of America screening of "One Chance," the film that's earned her a second Golden Globe Award nomination for her original song, "Sweeter Than Fiction."
Taylor med i ny reklamfilm för Audi
Gott Nytt År!
Deadline Awards Watch intervju.
VS fashion show på TV3
Taylor är den mest givmilda kändisen 2013
Taylor Swift, One Direction Named 2013's Most Charitable StarsThe country-pop singer tops the sixth annual Top 20 Celebs Gone Good list for the second year in a row, as she turned her 24th birthday into a gift for others by quietly donating $100,000 of her own money to The Nashville Symphony. She also joined Prince William and Bon Jovi on stage for an impromptu performance of "Livin’ On a Prayer" at the Winter White Gala in London to help homeless youth. [...]"It’s pretty amazing that the top two spots on the list are held by celebrities under age 25," said Naomi Hirabayashi, CMO of DoSomething.org. "For the first time, 50 percent of the list is age 30 or younger. This rising generation is using their money and star power for good."Fortsätt läsa
Taylors klänning i VS skyltfönster
GRATTIS TAYLOR!
Ed Sheeran pratar om Taylor
Hjälp oss att fixa ny design!
Citat: Demi Lovato om Taylor
Interviewer: A lot of lyrics in pop songs seem to be all about drinking and clubbing. Do you feel like it’ll hurt your music career not to put out records about those types of things?
Demi Lovato: I don’t really care because those things don’t apply to my life at all. A good example of that is Taylor Swift. We’ve had conversations about this where I’m like, “I have so much respect for you as an artist because you don’t have to write about that stuff.” She’s like, “Well, I don’t go out.” I don’t go out to clubs and I don’t party and to me, it says more when you don’t have to do things for shock value. You’re more respected as an artist. And that’s what I want to be, I want to be respected as an artist and not a tabloid headline.
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The Vamps pratar om hur det var att träffa Taylor
Taylor är aktuell med den nya parfymen Incredible Things. Parfymen finns sedand den 1/12 -14 på Kicks. Ni kan även hitta de tidigare parfymerna Wonderstruck, Wonderstruck Enchanted och Taylor by Taylor Swift hos ett antal återförsäljare runt om i landet.
