LOS ANGELES — Taylor Swift could make history this coming Sunday if she secures music’s most coveted prize: album of the year, for a fourth time. This achievement would mark her as the first artist to do so since the Grammy Awards were established in the 1950s, surpassing legends like Frank Sinatra.
While Swift continues to enjoy commercial and cultural triumphs, the music industry as a whole is facing uncertain times. This week, the music industry’s most influential executives and artists gathered in Los Angeles for events leading up to the industry’s biggest night, the Grammy Awards. These events not only bring glitz and red carpets, but also have significant business implications. Winning artists typically experience a boost in sales and streams and gain more leverage in future contracts.
At 34, Swift has become a dominant force, making up an estimated 2% of the entire US music business last year, a figure larger than the entire genre of jazz or classical music. Billboard recently crowned her as the industry’s most powerful person, a recognition typically given to male executives. Swift’s label head, Universal Music chief executive Lucian Grainge, was dethroned to the number two position in Billboard’s rankings. Despite Swift’s undeniable success, the music industry as a whole is experiencing a different reality.
Universal, the industry giant that Swift is signed to, is poised to lay off hundreds of staff in the coming weeks. The company is also canceling its annual pre-Grammys artist showcase, typically a lavish event, in fear of appearing insensitive amid the cuts. The mood in Los Angeles this week has been described by one large music company CEO as “a hangover” after several years of roaring growth. Other industry players, including Spotify, Warner Music, and BMG, have also been cutting jobs, indicating a slowdown in the industry’s previous rapid growth.
Anxiety over the impact of artificial intelligence on the music business has been escalating in recent months. Additionally, an ongoing dispute between Universal and the social media platform TikTok has resulted in Universal pulling its music from the platform. As a result, Swift’s music and those of other Universal stars are being systematically removed from TikTok, leaving fans to resort to using covers of their favorite songs to soundtrack their posts.
As the music industry faces these challenges, the anticipation for Sunday’s Grammy Awards is accompanied by a sense of uncertainty and apprehension among artists and executives alike.