The titans at Apple are apparently no match for the power of Swifty.
BuzzFeed News has been at the forefront of the debacle, starring Apple Music as the deceptive new villain who seems charming by giving listeners three months of free streaming after they sign up for the service–but not paying musicians, producers and writers during this time.
Your heroine? Pop icon Taylor Swift, who spoke out against the injustie and ubsequently made Apple Music change its mind, and policy, about paying artists.
The music industry at large voiced its disdain for the greedy decision, but none louder than Swift.
After the tech goliath couldn’t secure the rights to her super smash album 1989, TayTay took to Tumblr–say that five times fast–to voice that: She isn’t worried about herself getting paid, she’s worried about all the newcomers out there trying to make it in the biz.
“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,” Swift wrote.
“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.”
Apple made the announcement Sunday night that they agree to pay musicians during the period of the three-month trials. Per BuzzFeed News on Monday morning:
“In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Cue, Apple’s media boss, said the company will pay artists on a per stream basis during the free three-month trial. Cue declined to say what the rate per stream might be,” she added.
“Afterwards, it will pay music owners 71.5 percent of Apple Music’s subscription revenue in the United States. Internationally, the number will fluctuate, but will average out at around 73 percent.”
This adventure in Musicland might be wrapping up, but we aren’t sure if Apple is completely out of the woods yet. Honestly, you know Swift is already penning a song about this for her next album.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to Billboard.com
