Taylor Swift first had a go at Spotify making tiny payouts to musicians. The award-winning pop star has now set her sights on a new target; Apple Music.
Swift wrote an open letter on her Tumblr blog saying that her latest album, 1989, won’t feature on Apple Music because the service isn’t paying artists or producers throughout a 3-month trial period.
According to Taylor Swift, it’s not about how much she’s making from the service. She’s more concerned about the ‘young songwriter’ who needs that first single to survive. Taylor Swift is a fan of Apple directing listeners to paid streaming, but doesn’t think musicians should ‘work for nothing,’ particularly when the company is making so much money.
Just hours Swift criticised Apple, the iPhone maker has changed its policy. Apple’s Eddy Cue has promised that Apple will pay musicians ‘even during [the] customer’s free trial period.’ Indie artists are included, according to Engadget.
Cue has told Recode that Swift’s letter, and pressure from more musicians, ignited the change. He prompted Tim Cook to make the change and told Swift about the new policy. Cue hasn’t revealed the exact rate Apple is paying musicians during the trial. He did say, however, that its a per-stream payout rather than a revenue percentage.
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