Apple Music has a free three month trial period which is great for listeners, not so great for musicians who will not be paid during that trial period. While the major labels appear to have grudgingly accepted the way of things, indie labels and musicians such as Taylor Swift have spoken out against it.Well it looks like Swift’s voice was heard loud and clearly as Apple has since had a change of heart and has promised to pay artists during the trial period. This was confirmed by Apple exec Eddy Cue on Twitter who wrote, “#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period”. Cue had also tweeted, “We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.”
Prior to this, Swift had penned an open letter to Apple expressing her disappointment that a “historically progressive and generous company” could do something like this, going 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.”
Swift is one of the most popular artists in the world at the moment and her words no doubt carry some weight, especially amongst her fans who for all we know, could end up boycotting Apple Music for her sake. That being said it looks like Apple has decided to do the right thing by artists so the question is, will Swift’s “1989” album that was previously not going to be available on Apple Music make its debut?
If it did, Apple would no doubt have scored a coup against its rivals such as Spotify, Rdio, Tidal, and etc., none of which currently has the album available for streaming, or in the case of Spotify who does not have her entire back catalogue either.
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