Taylor Swift wrote an optimistic view of the future of music in a WSJ op-ed article. In it, she says that she believes that the music industry is not dying - it's coming alive.". She might have a good point. Plus, she's even more famous than she was when she started out 10 years ago. Here's how she explained it:

1. The album format is here to stay


“There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity,” she says. “I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace.”

2. Artists need to make music that matters to their fans.


More about the heart than anything else these days. That's why most of Taylor's music is about relationships.

3. Artists will have to continue to surprise their audience



“I believe couples can stay in love for decades if they just continue to surprise each other, so why can’t this love affair exist between an artist and their fans?,” she says. As an example from her own career, she mentions that she was aware many of her fans would’ve seen much of her tour in support of Red in footage on YouTube before they came to see the show in person, so she went out of her way to make sure every date had a special guest or some other surprise they couldn’t know about in advance. “We want to be caught off guard, delighted, left in awe,” she says. “I hope the next generation’s artists will continue to think of inventive ways of keeping their audiences on their toes, as challenging as that might be.”

4. Genres won't matter anymore - She's right.


Is Taylor rock, country or pop??? Don't care.

“These days, nothing great you hear on the radio seems to come from just one musical influence,” she says. “The wild, unpredictable fun in making music today is that anything goes. Pop sounds like hip hop; country sounds like rock; rock sounds like soul; and folk sounds like country — and to me, that’s incredible progress.” Swift says that she aims to make music that reflects all of her interests, and hopes that genres will “become less of a career-defining path and more of an organizational tool.”

5. Artists will have to play the social game


She doesn't just talk the talk. She walks the walk. Check out below - she personally leaves messages on her fans' social media: