The senior vice president of Apple’s Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue took to Twitter today to confirm in a series of tweets that Apple will now pay artists during three month free trial period of Apple Music in a complete reverse from company’s original policy.
Apple’s reasoning behind the previous policy was that they were paying more royalty fee to artists, 71.5% in U.S. and 73% in countries outside U.S. compared to competing services paying 70%, after trial was over which according to Apple should compensate artists for free trial period as Apple itself was going to provide free service via its servers during the same timeframe. This obviously didn’t go too well with many indie artists and some stars like Taylor Swift, who decided to pull her latest album “1989” from Apple Music while still making her older albums available for streaming.
Taylor Swift wrote in an open letter to Apple titled “To Apple, Love Taylor” on how “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike” it was for a company like Apple to not pay artists anything during three month free trial of its upcoming music streaming service. She went as far as saying “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
image credit: Instagram
In response, Apple’s SVP posted “Apple will always make sure that artists are paid. We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.”
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
Now that Apple has decided to pay artists during free three month trial period, it will be interesting to see if Taylor Swift will now make her latest album available on Apple Music for streaming.
Apple Music will launch in over 100 countries on June 30th with iOS 8.4 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. It will be available for Android and Windows users in fall 2015. The service will cost $9.99 per month with family sharing plan costing $14.99 per month for sharing the service between six members of the family. First three months will be completely free to use. Users will be charged only once they decide to continue using the service after the initial first three month free trial period is over.
Update: Taylor Swift posted this after Cue’s tweets:
I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015
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