Diane GardnerFounder, Adept Business Solutions · Profit First Professional

Taylor Swift vs U2 Marketing Mistake

3 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:04

In this brief YouTube dialogue, Speaker A outlines Lesson 4: embrace innovation, citing Taylor Swift’s proactive adoption of digital streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music on her own terms, her negotiation for better artist royalties, and her use of surprise album drops during the pandemic to keep fans engaged. Speaker B reinforces the need for flexibility and innovation, then contrasts Swift’s success with U2’s marketing blunder: a pre‑pandemic forced distribution of a U2 album onto iPhones, which was perceived as intrusive and poorly received. The exchange underscores the importance of adapting to technology and respecting audience choice in music marketing.

Lesson number 4, embrace innovation. Adapt and innovate to stay ahead. So Taylor embraced digital streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, but on her own terms, negotiating better royalties for artists. She also used surprise album drops during the pandemic to stay relevant and keep fans engaged. So stay flexible, adapt.
Stay flexible, adapt, innovate, grasp new technologies. I'll tell you who did it badly was U2. Really? Yeah. Do you remember, this was pre-pandemic, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, Apple phone. So I don't know how, maybe 10 years ago, and you woke up one morning and the U2 album was on it. They forced it on everyone that had an iPhone.
Oh, the U2 album. Okay. Did I say YouTube? You said YouTube, but I, I mean, U2. The band U2. I'm getting it. I'm getting it.
Yeah. Okay. The band U2. There we go. So here's what's ironic. There's a gift and then there is a marketing piece. And even though it's the exact same thing, U2 perceivably did it as, here's who we are, you have to have this. They forced it upon us. Right. Where Taylor Swift gives us a new platform to choose to receive it in a new way. There's a radical difference there.