Westlife star Kian Egan has hit out at Taylor Swift’s decision to ban Spotify from playing her music.
The Voice judge, 34, claimed the US pop star made a “crazy” decision when she removed her content from the music streaming service.
Taylor created controversy when she pulled the plug on Spotify by removing all her music – as she believed it cheapened music.
Not happy: Taylor disallowed Spotify from using her music
“Her music alone last year would have six million revenue alone for her record label and all the different people who are in Taylor Swift world on Spotify,” he said.
“Taylor sold 1.2 million copies of her album in the first week last week in the US alone so I think for her to pull it, I think that’s crazy.”
Kian said that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek was right to release a statement arguing against Taylor’s decision.
“With Spotify I think he is making a lot of strong points in the sense that he is bringing music to people.
“I think if anyone is interested in this argument then they should go on Spotify’s website and read what the CEO said.”
Helping hand: Kian revealed that Spotify opened up Hozier to a new audience
Despite agreeing that there are two sides to the argument, the Westlife star did admit that he believes Spotify has helped artists like Wicklow native Hozier.
“Hozier Take Me To Church would have created hundreds of thousands for his label and his publisher,” he told Eoghan McDermott on 2FM.
“You take someone like Hozier whose a new artist – Spotify would have actually opened Hozier up to a whole different audience you know people would have never heard of Hozier without Spotify.”
