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Music

Taylor Swift and Vladimir Putin Have One Thing In Common

They might not have the same taste in boys, but they see eye-to-eye on streaming services.

Taylor Swift and Vladimir Putin went head to head in the race for Time Magazine's person of the year, 2014. The eventual winner was one of the other six finalists - a group known as "ebola fighters" - presumably some kind of LA stoner-rap collective - but the placement in the upper echelon of end of year lists is not the only similarity Putin and Swift share. The two high profile figures of pop and totalitarianism have another mutual interest and enemy: the music streaming service Spotify.

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BBC Russia reported yesterday that Spotify have abandoned plans to launch the service there. Alexander Kubaneishvili, who set to become the head of Spotify Russia, expressed his regret that Spotify was unable to open in his country, blaming “complications with the economic and political situation”. On top of this he also cited “changes in the Russian legislation concerning the internet.” Putin’s government, as you may have heard, haven’t got the best track record when it comes to freedom of information, a policy that has often affected Western pop artists. For the record: Putin threatened Madonna with jail early last year after she ‘promoted gay behaviour’.

The main streaming service in Russia is Yandex.Muzika, launched by the country’s largest search engine Yandex. It currently has a catalogue of 2.6million tracks and is also around 300 rubles cheaper than Spotify month-on-month.

A google translate of the Yandex top 5

Anyway, all economic and political turmoil aside, the fact still remains that Vladimir and Taylor are building bridges. Their shared grievances with the subscription service may be for slightly different reasons - one wants to protect the value of art, the other doesn’t want his Federation listening to Mika - but we hope this marks the start of a fruitful relationship. As Swift has said herself, she can "make the bad guys good for the weekend".