How Taylor Swift socked it to Apple over a weekend

All hail Taylor Swift. How she must give baby boomers the fear. Not just baby boomers. Also those who came next, the Generation Xers, who seemed to define themselves culturally mainly via goatees, apathy and heroin. And my own rather listless, half-generation thereafter, with our bigger beards and binge-drinking. Taylor Swift makes us all look old. Because we are old and the world will be hers.

You will have heard about her victory over Apple this week — you must have heard about it, because an opportunity to put Taylor Swift on the front of a newspaper is an opportunity not to be missed, particularly now that Elizabeth Hurley is getting on a bit and Princess Kate isn’t getting out much. In brief, Apple, the great corporate giant, is launching a music streaming service, which essentially allows people to listen to music without buying it, via subscription. For the first three months, Apple had planned to give this music away free, and pay no royalties for doing so.