Look what diminished income from streaming revenue made her do. In 2018, Taylor Swift signed a landmark contract with Republic Records and Universal Music – all of this after releasing the most rebellious record of her career, last year’s Reputation, killing the old Taylor on lead single “Look.” After spending her entire career on Big Machine Records, she made a huge jump with a deal that gave her control of all the masters to her music going forward. That’s not all: as part of the contract, the country-turned-pop superstar negotiated for UMG to share sales of their stock in Spotify with all artists signed to the label. That power play follows her open letter to Apple in 2015 , which resulted in a policy change that netted more streaming payments for record labels and their artists. In an age when artists struggle to make money from their music, those are serious boss moves.