Taylor Swift Took On Apple and Won. Is There Anything She Can"t Do?

As giant missteps go, Apple’s stumble was at least quick, and somewhat gracefully caught. Today, the world’s second-largest technology company announced that it had experienced a sudden change of heart about its controversial plan not to pay royalties to record companies during the three-month trial period of its new paid-for streaming service. That this news came not via an official statement, but a Twitter message to the pop-country artist Taylor Swift only added to the startling nature of what we were witnessing: the humbling of a major corporation by a 25-year-old woman.Less than 24 hours earlier, Swift had made her feelings about the payment policy clear via an open letter on her Tumblr . Explaining why she had refused to allow the company to stream her latest album, 1989 , she wrote: “I find it shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” adding: “Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it’s unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” The hours rolled, the outrage grew, and then the company responded: “We hear you @taylorswift and indie artists,” they tweeted. “Love, Apple.”

Swift, far from being a David to Apple’s Goliath, is a phenomenal force in today’s music industry. Raised in small-town Pennsylvania, she relocated to Nashville at 14 to pursue a music career, and since 2006 has released a total of five albums. She is already one of the bestselling artists of all time, has sold over 40m albums, and more than 130m single downloads. She has seven Grammy awards, 11 Country Music Association awards, 12 Billboard Music awards, a place in the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. This year she became the youngest woman to be included on the Forbes most powerful woman list . Her current UK tour sold out in seconds.

Even by these measures, this week’s triumph over Apple has revealed Swift to wield a clout that many other major artists and labels do not. She was, after all, not a lone voice in the music industry. The British independent label Beggars Group – home to Adele and FKA Twigs – had also set out its concerns : “We struggle to see,” it wrote in a statement, “why rights owners and artists should bear this aspect of Apple’s customer acquisition costs.” It’s worth mentioning that Elvis Costello referred to Swift’s Apple letter as ” a note from our future president “.

Swift is a very particular figure in the world of entertainment. She notches up remarkable sales – both in terms of her album sales, her live performances and her merchandise – but she is set apart from her peers by an almost old-fashioned sense of poise. This is not some Disney-whittled starlet with an inevitable drink and drugs meltdown looming on the horizon, her songs a wearisome routine of latex and thrusting. Rather she is canny, strikingly demure, in control of her own career and, it should be noted, author of her own songs.

That public persona has been well-honed. Her early reputation was perhaps a little wet – she was a girl with a guitar, known for penning winsome songs about failed romantic relationships – and when Kanye West stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs to protest her triumph over Beyonce; in the best female video category, the world leapt chivalrously to the defence of this crestfallen young woman in the glittery dress.

But since then Swift has been gathering strength. She has acquired a carefully curated entourage of female celebrities, many of whom were unveiled in the video for her recent single Bad Blood as a sort of superhero force: from Lena Dunham to Ellie Goulding, via Jessica Alba, Cindy Crawford and Cara Delevingne.

Her songwriting has evolved, too, revealing a sense of humour and self-awareness. Her recent single Blank Space poked fun at her reputation as a serial dater. “Got a long list of ex-lovers,” she sang. “They’ll tell you I’m insane/ Cause you know I love the players/ And you love the game.” The accompanying video , meanwhile, parodied her princessy image with a run of ballgowns, mansions and ponies.

Pop is a fickle business, its stars wax and wane. Yet Apple’s climbdown this week suggests a faith in Swift’s longevity as an artist. It’s also illustrative of a shift in the entertainment industry. Recent years have seen a rise in strong female performers such as Swift, who balk at the notion of conforming or compromising, and who have had no qualms about questioning accepted notions of female beauty, behaviour and sexuality. Or even, when the need arises, calling out multinational technology corporations.