Taylor Swift puts back catalogue on Jay Z's streaming service Tidal after shunning Spotify

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

After pulling her entire back catalogue from Spotify, Taylor Swift has sanctioned Jay Z’s new streaming service to host her music.

The singer’s albums – with the exception of 1989 – all appear on Tidal, the Sweden-based company Jay Z bought for $56m (£38m) two weeks ago.

Swift removed her back catalogue from Spotify in November following the release of her latest album 1989.

She said at the time: “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of music.

“I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”

Tidal, which aims to provide CD-quality streaming, offers subscribers access to 25 million tracks, 75,000 music videos and other content including artist interviews for £19.99 per month.

A spokesperson for the singer confirmed to MTV that Taylor's albums are available on Tidal, except for 1989 – despite it showing up as a picture on the streaming service.

“Taylor Swift’s albums, except for the multi-platinum 1989 all appear on streaming services that require a subscription fee. This has never been changed. Big Machine Records believes music has value and we do not believe Taylor’s music should be made available for free,” they said.

Swift’s music is also available on other subscription streaming services including Rhapsody, Google Play Music and Beats Music.

Jay Z’s company Project Panther took over Sweden-based Aspiro, which owns Tidal and streaming service WiMP, on 13 March.

According to Forbes, Jay Z has ambitions to allow artists involved in the streaming service to reap more rewards than the current corporate streaming model.

The rapper will now compete with the likes of Beats Music, which was founded by Dr Dre and bought by Apple in 2014.