She tweeted to her more than 59 million followers: “After the events of this week, I’ve decided to put 1989 on Apple Music…and happily so”. Apple Music is the company’s big gamble to catch up with other subscription music services, such as Spotify Ltd., which are threatening to rewrite the industry. “And so that’s why we decide we will now pay artists during the trial period”.
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In the past week, Apple changed its policy about payment to artists on their new streaming service after criticism from the Shake It Off star. She said that this is “the first time it’s felt right in my gut to stream my album”.
Apple’s own about-face came after Swift had blasted the Cupertino, Calif., company in a Sunday blog post, saying she found its policy “shocking” and “disappointing“.
Reports also claimed that Swift was paid by Apple to remove her music catalog from Spotify. However, it looks like Apple Music, which is due to launch on June 30, has entered the battlefield as an obvious victor.
The whole brouhaha has ended up a win: win deal for both parties.
Well, sort of. It’s really an upgrade to the native Music app you’ve already got on your iPhone, where all the music on your iPhone’s hard drive is stored.
“Whether all the bells and whistles that come with the new Apple offering are enough to sway usage away from Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM and many others in an already crowded field, or whether Apple opens up the category, remains to be seen”, he wrote in his report on the changing media streaming landscape.
Elsewhere it has also emerged Apple is under investigation in the United States for possible antitrust violations. “There was a huge chunk of the indie label community that was simply not willing to let Apple have a free pass”, explained Casey Rae of the Future of music Coalition. It is not known if Swift was aware of this alleged pressure. With her popularity and numbers of sales, she can definitely make or break a streaming service.
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Ohm & Sport created Eternify, an app that allows users to perpetually stream an artist’s music – thereby generating the basis for streaming revenue.
