Apple Music
Brand Ambassador | 2015-2016 / Exclusive Content Provider | 2019-present
Table of Contents
1989 World Tour Live
On December 13, 2015, her 26th birthday, Taylor announced she would be releasing the “1989 World Tour Live“, a concert film on Apple Music that captures her massive “1989 World Tour“. Just a week later, it was exclusively available to Apple Music subscribers. The “1989 World Tour” film features Taylor’s concert at ANZ Stadium in Sydney in front of 78’000 people and many backstage clips with Taylor’s friends and guest artists. According to her Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, Apple first had the idea of this film. “They came to me and said we want to be the one to capture this tour,” Taylor said in the interview.
There are three reasons why this movie was an important play for Apple at the time. First, Apple wanted to provide exclusive content to its Apple Music subscribers. You couldn’t find the “1989” film on Apple Music’s most direct competitor, Spotify. And you couldn’t watch the film on YouTube either, Apple’s other music competitor. YouTube was the obvious platform when it came to releasing a music video on the web. So the fact that Apple could snag an exclusive Taylor video like the concert film, it was a big win.
As for Spotify, Apple had been trying to differentiate itself since the Apple Music launch half a year prior. Both platforms were also trying to provide the best streaming library. There were very few differences between the two services, but Taylor was only one of them — you could stream 1989 on Apple Music and not on Spotify. Putting her tour film front and center was a great way to remind everyone that yes, you could stream Taylor Swift on Apple Music.
Viral Commercials
In early 2016, Taylor starred in a series of funny commercials for Apple Music. The first one, “Taylor vs. Treadmill” went viral, showing her being so engaged rapping along to the lyrics of Drake and Future’s “Jumpman” while running the treadmill that she takes a nasty, hard fall off the machine. Billboard reported a few days later that after Taylor posted the spot on her social media accounts, iTunes sales of “Jumpman” had shot up a ridiculous 431 percent worldwide. Within that, Billboard additionally reported that the plays for Apple Music‘s curated “#gymflow” playlist, which was also shown in the ad, had jumped 325 percent, making it the fifth-rated playlist in terms of popularity this week.
Altogether, the Taylor-starring Apple Music ad had received upwards of 20 million likes on Facebook and Instagram with the tech company more than accomplishing its goal in getting it seen by the masses. “To really get an idea that was simple, informative and funny with hooks is really like writing a song,” Larry Jackson, Apple Music‘s head of content, told Adweek. “With an artist that’s got 73 million followers on Instagram, that’s bigger than NBC, CBS and Fox and the viewership of prime time combined.”
Content Since 2019
| Years | 2015-present |
|---|---|
| Eras | 1989 Lover folklore & evermore Re-Recordings Midnights |
