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Thanks to Taylor Swift, Apple will pay artists during Apple Music’s free trials after all

By Koh Wanzi - on 22 Jun 2015, 6:07pm

Thanks to Taylor Swift, Apple will pay artists during Apple Music’s free trials after all

Image Source: Apple

It seems that nothing is set in stone in the battle for supremacy in the music streaming space, even when it comes to Apple. The Cupertino company has just said that it will pay musicians for music streamed during a customer’s free trial period after all, in response to Taylor Swift’s open letter protesting that Apple was essentially asking musicians to work for free.

While Swift praised Apple for working toward the goal of paid streaming, she said that she would be withholding her latest album, 1989, from Apple Music because of its previous decision to not pay artists for music streamed during Apple Music’s three-month free trial.

It seems that Apple has heard her. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice-president of Internet Software and Services, has taken to Twitter to announce Apple’s reversal of its position and explicitly acknowledge the concerns raised by Swift and other indie artists.

Apple's Eddy Cue took to Twitter to acknowledge the concerns of Swift and other indie artists.

Unlike Spotify, Apple Music does not have a permanent – albeit limited – free tier that allows access to the over 30 million songs on the service. Once the three-month free trial is over, users who want access to Apple Music’s library will have to sign up for a paid subscription at US$9.99 a month.

Apple isn’t revealing just how much remuneration artists will receive during the free trial, but it did say that it will be based on a per-stream payout instead of the usual revenue percentage.

Apple Music will be available to iOS, Mac and Windows users on 30 June. Support for Apple TV and Android will come later in the year.

Source: Eddy Cue (Twitter) via Engadget

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