Pop songstress Taylor Swift has made an influential deal, today (November 20), in Los Angeles, with record label Universal Music Group, worth around £20million per album. This comes after the first contract she signed with Nashville-based Big Machine 13 years ago expired.

As well as landing the major deal for herself, Swift, one of Pops’ most influential and wealthiest artists, has used her influence to force record chiefs to pay more to other artists whenever their music is streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer agreed a deal that gives her more control over her own music, and a boost to future pay-outs to artists for their music played on streaming service Spotify.

Swift, 28, has earned 10 Grammys and is the only artist with four albums that have sold more than a million copies in their first week of release. Swift’s had massive success under her old label – who she signed with when she was a teenager – with the Financial Times stating that her catalogue is reportedly worth over $300 million (£233 million).

In a post on her Instagram page, Swift said: “I’m ecstatic to announce that my musical home will be Republic Records and Universal Music Group. Over the years, Sir Lucian Grainge and Monte Lipman have been such incredible partners. It’s so thrilling to me that they, and the UMG team, will be my label family moving forward. It’s also incredibly exciting to know that I’ll own all of my master recordings that I make from now on.

“It’s really important to me to see eye to eye with a label regarding the future of our industry. I feel so motived by using new opportunities created by the streaming world and the ever changing landscape of our industry… I also feel strongly that streaming was founded on and continues to thrive based on the magic created by artists, writers and producers.”

The deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) included an agreement that any future sales of UMG’s shares in Spotify were also redistributed to the artist. The ‘Shake it off’ singer told her 113 Instagram followers that UMG “have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms and paid out previously by other major labels”.

In 2017, Swift returned to Spotify, a service with some 83 million paid subscribers around the world, nearly 3 years after publicly complaining that streaming services were not redistributing and sharing their profits with its artists.

Universal Music chief executive Lucian Grainge said in a statement that he supported and respected Swift’s long standing campaign for better working agreements for artists.

Grainge said: “because of her commitment to her fellow artists, not only did she want to partner with a company that understood her creative vision and had the resources and expertise to execute globally on her behalf, she also sought a partner whose approach to artists was aligned with hers”

“I feel strongly that streaming was founded on and continues to thrive based on the magic created by artists, writers and producers. I see this as a sign that we are headed towards positive change for creators – a goal I’m never going to stop trying to help achieve, in whatever ways I can,” says Swift, concluding her statement.