Taylor Swift just fired the latest shot in her ongoing feud with Katy Perry [1]. On Thursday, Taylor's team announced that she would be returning her extensive music back catalog to streaming services, including Spotify, at midnight on June 9, the same time Katy's Witness was set to drop. The news was shared via Instagram [2] as a "thank you" to fans for helping her 2014 album 1989 sell over 10 million copies.
View this post on Instagram[3]
Taylor famously removed her music from all streaming services [5] — in a move that many considered the opposite of a "thank you" to fans — shortly before 1989 was released. In 2015, she wrote a letter to Apple Music [6] explaining why she wouldn't be streaming 1989 on its new platform, and shortly after, the company made changes to its policy and Taylor "happily" changed her mind.
Yes, this move certainly could be in celebration of Taylor's 100 Million Song Certification, but the timing of her move was pretty peculiar, considering it was just hours after Katy made headlines for her latest comments [7] about "Bad Blood." "I wish that I could turn the other cheek every single time, but I'm also not a pushover, you know?" Katy told NME. Especially when someone tries to assassinate my character with little girls [her fans]. That's so messed up!"
Well, Katy? It's your move.