Taylor Swift: 1, Apple: 0.
As Apple is gearing up for the June 30th launch of their new streaming service, Beats Music, musicians were complaining that the service is going to start with a three-month free trial period where Apple would NOT be compensating artists accordingly. A handful spoke out, including Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, but it was the magical Taylor Swift who got through to Apple.
After reading Swift’s open letter to Apple, Eddy Cue, the Senior VP of Internet Services and Software at Apple, released the following series of tweets last night:
Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
From the messages, it’s rather clear that Taylor Swift got her message across. She responded:
I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015
Way to go Taylor!