Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Yard Act highlight venue merch commissions with Leeds pop-up shop
completemusicupdate.comYard Act have announced that they will be running a pop-up shop selling merch ahead of their show at the Leeds Academy tonight based in a pub near the venue.
They say they are aiming to highlight the cut of merch revenues some venues take when bands sell t-shirts and such within their walls.The band will also be selling merch at the show as normal, but everything offered at the pop-up will be on sale for 25% less than that sold at the gig, calling attention to the portion of sales that the venue insists on taking.“We decided to give people who will struggle to get to the pop-up the chance to buy some merch, so there will be a range at the Academy, but wanted to highlight the issue that certain venues are taking big cuts of income that is pretty necessary to keep artists on the road”, the band tweeted.Their discount merch stand will be set up at The Social bar on Merrion Street in Leeds from 5pm tonight and the band will be there from 6-7pm “having a pint if you want to say hi or get owt signed”.
There will also be exclusive items available at The Social which will not be on sale at the Academy. And the shop will be open after the show too.The band also noted that they are not doing this at the other O2 sponsored venues they are playing on their current tour because they do not take a cut of sales, explaining: “Worth highlighting the merch cut is not an O2 policy, as most assume.
The Ritz in Manchester is an O2 and doesn’t take a cut to sell there. It’s a venue choice”.The issue of venues taking a cut of merch sales has been hotly debated post-pandemic, as artists attempt to make up for the losses incurred while they were unable to perform during the various lockdowns.
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