Apple and Taylor Swift are each bigger successes today than ever before. 10 years ago though, they found themselves on opposite sides of a major issue that could have unraveled the successful launch of Apple Music. Here’s what happened.
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Taylor Swift is about to release her newest album called “The Tortured Poets Department” on April 19. Last week, the singer had already partnered with Apple Music to release a series of playlists with a voice message from Taylor to promote her new album. Now Taylor Swift is using Apple Music lyrics to share some riddles with her fans.
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Apple Fitness+ is not just about workouts, as Apple also highlights the platform’s integration with Apple Music. This time, the company has announced that the next artist to be featured on Apple Fitness+ workouts is 11-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift.
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Three weeks after hitting iTunes, Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation is starting to roll out on Apple Music. The Verge notes that both Apple Music and Spotify subscribers across the globe are already seeing the album appear on streaming services. Amazon Music Unlimited also has the album.
Taylor Swift, who took a high profile stance against Apple Music’s initial decision not to pay artists during the free trial period, is now allowing her music on Spotify’s free tier.
Taylor Swift is continuing her partnership with Apple Music, with yet another ad featuring the singer and the streaming service. The new minute-long commercial features Taylor Swift dancing around to ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness.
Swift demonstrates using the Apple Music discovery features (via the ‘Friday Night Rocks!’ playlist) to find the track. The ad ends with the slogan ‘Dance like no one’s watching’. Watch the ad after the jump …
Taylor Swift and Apple Music have today launched another commercial on Twitter promoting Apple’s $9.99 streaming music service, featuring song ‘The Middle’ by Jimmy Eat World. It is unclear if the minute-long ad will be exclusive to online promotional channels or also be shown on TV.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Taylor Swift was boycotting Apple Music over artist compensation, but Eddy Cue and company quickly turned that around and now the global pop star is starring in the latest Apple Music ad … with a face-smacking twist.
As expected, Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour documentary is now available exclusively on Apple Music. Apple and Swift announced the partnership last weekend, marking a continuation of the growing relationship the two parties have developed since the launch of Apple Music this summer.
Taylor Swift revealed today, her 26th birthday, via Twitter that an exclusive 1989 World Tour documentary will hit Apple Music on Dec. 20. The special is exclusive to Apple Music subscribers and is an example of the kind of exclusive content that Apple wants to bring in for its Music service. It won’t be available for purchase though other channels, at least not initially. The concert will include a number of big artists, as well. A trailer for the documentary can be seen below.
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As Apple continues its efforts to break into the fashion scene, it was today announced that the company will sponsor the 2016 Met Gala. For those unfamiliar, the Met Gala is an event held every year in New York to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute. Each year has a different theme and the 2016 theme will be “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” with Apple sponsoring the event and Jony Ive serving a co-chair alongside Taylor Swift.
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In a new interview with the London Evening Standard, Apple executive Jimmy Iovine has shed some more light on the day that Taylor Swift published her open letter to the company calling for artists to be fairly compensated during the three-month free trial of Apple Music. In her letter, Swift called on Apple to do the right thing and not ask artists to provide their music for no compensation. In today’s interview, Iovine described the behind-the-scenes workings that saw Apple change its tune regarding compensating artists during the free Apple Music trial:
September cover of Vanity Fair
Taylor Swift is being featured on the cover of the September issue of Vanity Fair (view the full cover below the fold), and at the center of the interview within the high profile magazine is the pop star’s telling of her recent episode with Apple. Plans to not compensate artists during Apple Music’s three-month free trial period prompted Swift to publish an open letter explaining why her latest album 1989 wouldn’t be available on their new music streaming service. Apple quickly moved to change that policy and Swift’s album was notably highly promoted on Apple Music at launch. In the interview with Vanity Fair, Taylor Swift detailed her exchange with Apple while comparing it to a similar experience with Spotify that had a different outcome…
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The controversy surrounding Apple Music’s launch thanks to Taylor Swift made for an excellent way to drum up some extra attention for the service’s debut late last month. First, Swift, who was already vocal in the past regarding streaming services, penned a blog post knocking down Apple’s decision to offer a free, three-month trial without paying artists for streams during that period. Apple responded to Taylor’s decision to hold back her music from the service and it was thought the blog post eventually inspired Apple to reverse its decision. Swift responded to Apple’s decision positively and announced her latest record would be available on the service, all in the days leading up to the Apple Music launch on June 30.
Today we get a bit of insight into what was going on behind the scenes via a Fortune interview with CEO of Taylor’s label, Big Machine Label Group, Scott Borchetta. The record exec notes that he was already in the middle of negotiations with Apple regarding the terms of the three-month trial when Swift published her blog post without letting her label know beforehand. In the end, Apple was able to gain added attention over its music service launch with Swift’s album featured on day one.
Taylor Swift has answered one of the last remaining questions about Apple Music before it launches: her popular album 1989 will be available on Apple Music when it launches on Tuesday. The development follows Swift’s high profile letter to Apple over how artists would be paid during the streaming service’s 3-month free trial. Apple later reversed its decision announcing it would pay artists during the trial.
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A report that Apple would pay music labels a reduced royalty rate during the three-month free trial of Apple Music has been confirmed by labels who spoke to the NY Times. Apple had originally planned to pay them nothing before an open letter from Taylor Swift and complaints from others led to a swift change of plan.
For each song that is streamed free, Apple will pay 0.2 cent for the use of recordings, a rate that music executives said was roughly comparable to the free tiers from services like Spotify. This rate does not include a smaller payment for songwriting rights that goes to music publishers.
Spotify bases its royalty payment for free users on a 35% share, half of the 70% it pays for tracks streamed by paid subscribers …
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Apple Music is almost here and it looks like Taylor Swift had a thing or two to say about it. Along with that, we have some exclusive details on Apple Watch 2 and an overview of the new iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, and watchOS 2.0 betas. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.
This week we’re very excited to podcast with Brian from Pad & Quill and talk a little bit about some of the excellent accessories they make. Be sure to check out padandquill.com to view their products.
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Just as we thought Apple’s u-turn would put an end to the controversy over its original intention to pay artists nothing during the free trial of Apple Music, a statement to the WSJ suggests that there is still time for the saga to turn into a PR nightmare.
While everyone assumed Apple would now be paying artists and publishers the 71.5% royalty rate from day one, it appears the actual amount paid during the free trial will be lower.
Apple declined to say how much it plans to pay during the trial period, though it said the rate will increase once customers start paying for subscriptions.
Eddy Cue’s tweets in response to Taylor Swift’s open letter said only that Apple “will pay artist for streaming” and “will always make sure artists are paid,” stopping short of promising to pay the full royalty rate from day one …
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Pop star Taylor Swift dominated the headlines yesterday after publishing an open letter to Apple in which she wrote that it was “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company” to not pay artists during Apple Music’s free trial. By the end of the day, the whole episode had an almost storybook perfect ending with Apple’s Eddy Cue announcing that the company decided it will compensate artists during the free period. Reactions today have been all over the place, but for Apple Music, the upcoming streaming music service, is the Taylor Swift episode a PR nightmare or a publicity dream?
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Following Taylor Swift’s public criticism of Apple’s decision not to pay artists and labels for plays during Apple Music’s three-month free trial period, Eddy Cue took to Twitter to announce a swift policy change. The executive assured Swift that music producers will now be paid for every play on the Apple Music service, including those that are part of a user’s free trial.
Update: Apple has responded to Swift’s blog post.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Taylor Swift’s latest album ‘1989’ will not be available on Apple Music, Apple’s streaming music service launching on June 30th with iOS 8.4. She has written a blog post on Tumblr explaining her position.
We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.
Swift explains that she respects Apple for their innovation but says the terms associated with the Apple Music free trial are ‘unlike this historically progressive and generous company’. Swift says that under the 3 month free trial period, artists and rights holders are not paid at all for the duration and notes Apple has plenty of money to reimburse the artists for their work. Swift says that she is holding back 1989 not because she cannot support herself but as a retaliation for ‘the new artist or band that has just released their first single’.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding what artists will be available on Apple Music. Earlier this week, it was reported that artists signed to indie labels, like Adele and the Arctic Monkeys, had still not signed on to appear on the service. BuzzFeed now reports that Taylor Swift’s hit album ‘1989’ will not be available on Apple Music either. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, though, seeing that ‘1989’ is currently not available from any existing streaming services like Beats and Spotify.
Contrary to many assumptions being posted this morning, Apple Music doesn’t allow you to stream the entire iTunes library – just most of it. As The Verge notes, The Beatles are among the exceptions.
Even Beats Music got this wrong, stating in its FAQ that Apple Music gives you everything you get with Beats “plus, you can play all of the songs in the iTunes catalog” …
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Apple’s upcoming Beats-based streaming music service will likely be named “Apple Music” and will have deep social networking integration for artists, according to industry sources briefed on the plans for the new service.
Taking a page out of the discontinued iTunes Ping feature from earlier this decade, the service will allow artists to have their own pages within the streaming music service that they can use to post track samples, photos, videos, and concert updates.
Artists will also be able to share the content of other artists in an effort of cross-promotion. For example, all-gold Apple Watch wearer Kanye West could promote a new album from Taylor Swift on his “Apple Music” artist page, if he so chooses…
