“The simple reason is that Apple and their major label “partners” have created a reward system that is both incomprehensible in scope and totally out of sync with iCloud’s streaming peers’ (Rdio, Spotify, et al) financial mechanics. As we have been entrusted with an incredible wealth of creative assets, and our primary responsibility is to our partners; the artists, producers, and songwriters that make up the Numero catalog, we feel that Apple’s pittance is an insult not only to them, but every other musician, living or dead, and, if the latter is the case, their heirs.”
Since the specifics of the deal that Apple has worked out with the major labels and the smaller ones is unknown, it’s hard for us to comment on whether Numero Group’s reasoning is a sound one but we do know that for $25 a year, it’s a good price to pay for those who have been illegally downloading their music all this while and it could be one of the answers to piracy that the music industry has been trying come up with all this while. So readers, would you be willing to pay $25 a year to make your music collection “legal”? We’re not sure how much those artists will be getting from our $25 but it’s a lot better than zero.