Apple earlier announced that their upcoming streaming Apple Music service that will be launched on June 30th will be offered as a free trial for its users for three months. However, it also negotiated to not pay rights holders their royalties during the first three months of free trial and instead pay them a bit more royalty of around 70pc of the monthly subscription charge after the free trial.
Two weeks after the unleashing of streaming Apple Music service, Taylor Swift wrote on Tumblr “I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”
Taylor Swift also said that the decision of withholding her latest album “1989” from the streaming Apple Music service is not because of the consideration for her own commercial interests, but for the new artists who have “just released their first single and will not be paid for its success for 3 months.”
Following Taylor Swift’s public complaint about the policy, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue announced that Apple Music has changed its plan and now they will pay royalties to artists during its three month free trial for users. He didn’t give much information regarding the amount to be paid to artists during the free trials, but the move will definitely help the company to improve the public perception of their streaming Apple Music service. It will also potentially encourage some artists to join the service that were earlier boycotting the payout structure, including the artists managed by Beggars Group.
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015