Interesting topic! People have made some good points on both sides of the argument. I have mixed feelings on it all.
Still, something doesn't feel right to me about Apple offering a whole three months free listening without paying the artists. It reminds me why I don't like the major supermarket chains here in Australia, who, amongst other practices, use their buying power to tell farmers and suppliers what the terms are, including so-called 'voluntary' marketing contributions. (
See this article.) Apple's free trial has a similar ring to it. For a supermarket chain, it's all about getting people into the store. In the longterm, it's about market dominance (and in turn, even more buying power). 50% off an advertised product gets shoppers into the store. Will those shoppers become loyal to the product once they've sampled it—once it returns to the full price? Who knows? Who cares? Certainly not the supermarket. They only care about their own brand. For Apple, this is about getting people in, and dominating the online music industry again. It's about making Apple the world's preeminent music brand. Who cares if a few artists lose out along the way?
I hope artists don't lose out. I hope this is a great opportunity for indie artists to get heard, and to make good money for what they do. I guess time will tell.
I can understand why some musicians, like The Beatles and Taylor Swift, don't wish to be party to this degradation.
I hadn't realised this was the case until I read your comment. When I heard the Apple Music announcement, I had naively assumed it would be the whole iTunes Store library… But I see there will be some pretty big holes in there. Apple can't be happy about that.
I still don't get why Apple pushed for a 3 month trial period instead of a 1 month trial.
If you use it for 30 days, you will know whether you want to keep it or not.
An extra 2 months of 'free-time' that Apple cannot collect revenue or pass onto labels and artists via royalties is completely superfluous and unnecessary.
I agree. The consumer is certainly getting spoiled here. But as always, someone has to pay.
Why don't you come work for me for free for 3 months and then if I like you enough I'll start paying you.
You've received a fair bit of stick for this analogy, but I thought it was okay (no analogy is perfect). If someone discovers some great new music soon after signing up, and they play it to death for the first month or so (and who hasn't done this at some time?), you have to wonder if that artist will see much if anything once the trial period is over.
It's great that Apple wants to offer three months free trial but why shouldn't the artists get paid? If not for their music (all artists/labels) there wouldn't be anything to listen to and the service would seem pretty bad.
Right. Despite what some commenters are saying, Apple Music needs musicians more than musicians need Apple Music. If the world's musicians united and said no to Apple Music, it would be nothing. However, Apple has evidently done enough to get the major labels on board, so that's not going to happen. One feels that Apple Music will have a huge number of trial members from day one, and all those starving artists will feel obliged to tag along on the scent of a prayer of the hope of getting noticed.
Mountain out of a mole hill. Apple isn't making money from streaming during the trial period, why should it have to pay the artist or the label royalties during that period?
Apple, during the initial months, will be getting exactly what Apple wants—millions of subscribers who can't resist a great deal. The outcome for artists is a little harder to predict I think.
Exactly this. Apple wants to offer their customers something free from somebody else. Hey, want to borrow my neighbor's car? You can borrow it for FREE! That's because I'm a really really nice guy.
Haha! The analogy is far from perfect, but hey, it's not too far from the truth in some ways!
Anyway, to everyone else, since I am both a fairly unknown indie artist as well as an indie record label with music on the iTunes Music store, I have some actual insight into all of this. … It's definitely a win/win for any indie artist to opt in and not to worry about the 3 month trial. It's really not that big of a deal.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on this as an indie artist. I found it enjoyable and informative. I hope you're right!!
