Taylor Swift penned an open letter to Apple Music in support of all music artists telling the company she would be holding back her newest album, 1989, since the company refused to pay artists during the three month trial period they were providing for free to subscribers.
In the initial letter to Apple Music Swift made it clear her letter was coming from all musical artists and it wasn’t just about her saying, “Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows.”
Taylor continued by explaining all the people who can’t afford to support themselves and the fact that they need the money to get out of debt or pay their bills.
Swift said while the service should be free to the users for three months, she was well aware that Apple has more than enough money to pay the artists saying,
“Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.”
It didn’t take very long before Apple Music responded to Swift letting her know the company would be paying the artists the money they deserved. The company didn’t respond with a lengthy letter but rather responded with several tweets saying,
“Apple will always make sure that artist[s] are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic.” The next tweets said, “#AppleMusic will pay artist[s] for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period.” And then finally a tweet directed to Swift, “We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.”
Swift later tweeted, “I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.”
What do you think about how Apple Music responded to Swifts complaint? Swift pulled her music from Spotify following an issue with the amount of money she was receiving. It isn’t long before we are saying Spotify who?
It seems Swift has a lot of power and is a force to be reckoned with. Thoughts?