Music

Apple Music will pay artists because Taylor Swift said so

by Jeremy Mersereau

It’s good to know that all it takes to get a mega-corporation to change its policy is an open letter… the system works! Well, it helps if the letter is from one of the most popular artists on the planet.

Just one day after Taylor Swift posted her open letter to Apple exhorting the tech giant to re-think its policy of not paying artists and labels during Apple Music’s free trial period, the company has reversed course and agreed to change its approach.

Here’s Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue:

In an interview with Billboard, Cue mentioned that he had talked personally with Swift and the company had “heard her concerns and are making the changes.” He also added that though he’d heard from other indie artists, it’s “great when [Swift] speaks up on what her positions are.” Yep, it sure sounds like Apple would definitely still have changed their mind if the pressure was still only coming from indieland, and not an artist worth $200 million.

When asked if Apple will be eating the cost of the three-month free trial, Cue responded:

We’re certainly paying for it, yes. We’re all in. But we view this as: music is a part of our DNA — we talk about it a lot. We love music and we’ve always strived to have great relationships with the music community and we have a deep respect for what they do. We’re in this for the long term.

While it’s great that Apple Music has seen reason and agreed to respect the wishes of the great T-Swizz, it’s unfortunate it took someone of her, ahem, stature to get the ball rolling. To her credit, Swift does address this in her letter:

This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field… but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.

This isn’t the first time Swift has expressed her ire with a streaming platform: last November, the singer’s Big Machine label abruptly pulled her whole back catalog off Spotify, citing similar concerns about not being paid the true value of her music.