Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Taylor Swift's record label Big Machine, has hit back at claims from streaming service Spotify that the singer was on track to make $6 million a year from the company had she not pulled her catalogue. Borchetta said that Swift made $496,044 over the past 12 months for streams of her songs in the U.S.

Taylor SwiftTaylor Swift pulled her music from Spotify before the release of her huge album 1989

Borchetta had originally argued that his label had made more from Vevo than from Spotify, though the Swedish streaming service hit, with Jonathan Prince, global head of communications, saying, "The more we grow, the more we pay artists, and we're growing like crazy"

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"I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music," Swift told Yahoo Music after pulling her music from Spotify just days before the release of her new record-breaking album 1989.

"I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."

Spotify

On Tuesday (November 11), Spotify's chief executive defended his company's model, saying it protected artists against illegal downloading, saying, "Piracy doesn't pay artists a penny - nothing, zilch, zero. And sure enough, if you looked at the top spot on the Pirate Bay last week, there was 1989."

"At our current size, payouts for a top artist like Taylor Swift (before she pulled her catalogue) are on track to exceed $6m a year, and that's only growing - we expect that number to double again in a year."

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However, Borchetta refuted those figures and argued that Spotify was ultimately damaging the music industry.

"The facts show that the music industry was much better off before Spotify hit these shores," he told Time.

"Don't forget this is for the most successful artist in music today. What about the rest of the artists out there struggling to make a career? Over the last year, what Spotify has paid is the equivalent of less than 50,000 albums sold."

Last year, the Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke pulled his solo music from Spotify in protest over how it pays artists.