Musicians Leaving Twitter After Musk Takeover

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last week.

His takeover has already upset many, as he immediately fired the company's previous chief and other top officials. 

Sarah Personette, the chief customer officer and advertising boss, resigned from Twitter a few days ago, making advertisers nervous.

Twitter will now charge $8 a month for its Blue Tick verification badge as Musk looks to increase subscriptions and make the social media service less reliant on advertisements. "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit.  

Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," he posted on his Twitter account.

"Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity," he added, citing that $8/month users will have access to "Priority in replies, mentions & search, ability to post long video & audio, half as many ads, and paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us".

Musk noted, "This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators" and "There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians."

Even before purchasing Twitter, Musk confirmed that he was considering loosening free speech rules and allowing banned users to return. The shifts that Musk is promising are worrying some users who are already vowing to leave the platform, including pretty famous people with large followings.

The prolific horror author Stephen King has expressed his discontent at the platform's new ownership, writing, "$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron," to which Musk responded with his $8/month pledge.

Sara Bareilles, the Love Song and She Used To Be Mine singer-songwriter, is leaving Twitter. "Welp. It's been fun Twitter. I'm out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one's just not for me," she wrote.

Seven-time Grammy Award-winning Toni Braxton is also logging off Twitter. The Un-Break My Heart singer said, "I'm shocked and appalled at some of the "free speech" I've seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of "free speech" is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC."

We have yet to see how many people will leave the social network. Some of the most-followed users, including Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber, have yet to tweet anything about Musk's takeover.

$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022

Welp. It’s been fun Twitter. I’m out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me. ❤️🙏🏼

— Sara Bareilles (@SaraBareilles) October 30, 2022

I'm shocked and appalled at some of the "free speech" I've seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of "free speech" is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC.

— Toni Braxton (@tonibraxton) October 29, 2022