Opinion: How George Harrison's 'Taxman' shaped the $11B music streaming market

A new analysis of the music industry's record $11 billion in 2025 streaming royalties traces today's economics back to George Harrison's 1966 fiscal protest. Harrison's 'Taxman,' written in response to Britain's 95% top tax rate, inadvertently created a template for financial engineering around music copyrights. As Spotify reaches new payment milestones, Harrison's legacy highlights the transformation of music into a coveted global asset class, fundamentally altered by the fiscal pressures of the late 1960s.