During the most recent Worldwide Developers Conference held by Apple the company introduced its offering into the streaming music market, Apple Music. The company hopes to compete with the likes of Spotify, Pandora, Google Music and others in a market that’s probably never going to go away. One of the perks that Apple is dangling in front of its users to try their new service is a free three month trial to Apple Music. This perk isn’t sitting too well with singer/songwriter Taylor Swift and she took to her tumblr to express her concerns over the way Apple is handling it.
UPDATE (6/22/2015): It seems that Apple has heard Taylor’s complaints, as Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue took to Twitter late last night in an attempt to clear up any confusion:
Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period — Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
Cue later spoke with Re/code and confirmed that Taylor’s letter, in addition to complaints from indie labels prompted the change, and that he worked directly with CEO Tim Cook to make it happen. He also said that he’d spoken with Ms. Swift, and that she was “thrilled to hear from us and that we were making the change, and we were grateful for that.” Taylor echoed that sentiment a short time later on Twitter.
I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us. — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015
ORIGINAL STORY:
Taylor Swift explains that she is holding back her new album, 1989, from Apple Music due to the company not compensating artists for those free three months that users will be getting. It seems the record companies made this deal with Apple to get their artists on Apple Music but Swift is having none of it. Swift goes on to defend herself saying that her post is not about her but about the smaller artists who won’t get paid and deserve to be paid.
These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much. We simply do not respect this particular call.
Swift goes on to admit her respect for Apple and its founders and doesn’t deny their influences but remains firm in her ground that artists deserve a cut during the three month period.
But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.
What do you think of Taylor Swift’s tumblr post? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter. In the meantime, here’s a video that’s an interesting watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQCfevv8vT0
[button link=”http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Taylor Swift[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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