Apple Music has reversed its artist payment policy, one day after singer Taylor Swift said she was taking a stand against the company and not allowing the to stream her album 1989.
Swift wrote an an open letter to Apple and said she was withholding the record as she was unhappy with Apple not paying artist during the three-month free trial offered to subscribers. Swift had said the plan was “unfair”.
[quote type=”border_left”]Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months,” Swift wrote in an open letter. “I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.[/quote]
Now Apple says it will pay artists for music streamed during trial periods.
[quote type=”border_left”]#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period, tweeted Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.[/quote]
Swift tweeted back and expressed her joy.
Speaking to Billboard magazine Cue said that Apple had already been been hearing “a lot of concern from indie artists about not getting paid during the three-month trial period” before Swift spoke about it. But he said “we never looked at it as not paying them”.
