Taylor Swift Criticizes Apple Music's Free Trial in Open Letter

[Flight Plan]

Come back to the real world dude.

People don´t want to pay for an LP or CD, they want to stream their music, thats the real world today.

And the youngsters is well aware of this. This is the real world today, don´t look back at what was 20 years ago.

Youngsters ARE looking back at what was 20 years ago. And farther back too! We have 10-20 year-olds doing covers of Bon Jovi, The Beatles, Elton John, and Aerosmith. And doing covers of Beethoven. On guitar and banjo. So you're not quite right about that.

I am starting to see actual RECORD ALBUMS in (ahem) real world stores again. Now that's weird. But it's happening.

 

[smorrissey]

Its entirely subjective, but I don't think its band at all - its choice full of insanely catchy pop songs.

Time out. Here she is in a clip with a British DJ miming Blank Space:

Is that guy supposed to be a comedian? he's bad.

 

[charlitos]

And why should the artists bear Apple's customer acquisition cost...which is what the free trial is.

Because it is your choice to sign up for it or not.

 

[p774]

Utilities won't be 100% for Apple after the 3 month trial either...yeah its their service but utilities those are shared..

It looks like we’ll never settle an agreement. They’re buying content from artists the same way as you’re buying let’s say apps or other software. If they stopped compensating all software developers because they want to lure people to use their service, I can’t imagine app developers being happy about it.

I believe that artists get compensated because they are the content providers. Having a music service without music would be ridiculous, don’t you think?

 

[psylence2k]

But those artists won't dare go against their label, or they will likely just terminate their contract. Swift has freedom, as you said, they don't. That's not gonna change even with her letter.

Artists publicly express dissatisfaction or "go against" their label ALL the time. Where have you been ?

No, a label typically will not terminate an artists contract because they bad mouth them. If that was the case there'd be dozens of artists regularly bad mouthing their label hoping to get out of their situation and into a new one.

I think alot of people are speaking on the specifics and hypotheticals of this situation without really knowing how the music industry works.

What Swift is doing might not change anything overnight but any huge historical change started as one stand that was unlikely to change anything and snowballed over time until it finally did. So you can't knock her for trying because someone at sometime has to be the first one to do it for it to ever get anywhere.

 

[HenryDJP]

I read the first two pages of comments and part of this one.

I can't sit here all night reading 37.5 pages when I already know the results. 25% hate Apple, 25% hate Taylor Swift, all the rest just posted here because they confuse wisdom with seeing their screen name in public. Oh, and two people will find a way to make this about Beats, while twelve respondents will try to twist it into a Bose thing...

As I read it, this policy of Apple's does seem to be discriminating. It discriminates against all artists who are artists now, and it doesn't discriminate against people who might not form their band or release their recordings for another 3 months.

So can artists just say "skip it" until September?

On the flip side of that, I've heard some entrepreneurs say that they've never made so much money in their lives as they did when they started giving things away for free. Promotions, drawings, giveaways, contests, gifting in a charity drawing, etc. It builds goodwill (or something), and generates interest...which often translates into increased revenue. You can't have profit without first bringing in revenue.

I think you're misunderstanding the terms and conditions of the subscription. It doesn't matter when you sign up it's always three months free. If you sign up at Christmas time it's still three months free so artists holding out until September does nothing.

 

[nikhsub1]

Someone here said 2.2 billion.

I think that number is way off. Spotify has paid out 2 billion TO DATE. 500 million in all of 2013 according to their web site. I don't think it's possible for it to be 2.2 billion but assuming that is the number so what? Apple is giving away OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY! Do you think Apple would agree to give away 2.2 billion in product just cause? I don't think so. 2.2 billion to Apple is still chump change.

 

[Flight Plan]

I'm sure in a few months time she will write a song about how she broke up with apple.

Okay, that made me laugh!

 

[smorrissey]

Ok enough talking who we blame here the Apple or the blonde?

 

[XzavierMonroe]

A couple days ago BuzzFeed reported that Taylor Swift's new album, "1989", would not be available to stream on Apple Music, denying the service of one of the best-selling albums of the last two years. Today, Swift penned an open letter to the Cupertino company explaining her decision.

Swift, who calls Apple one of her best partners in selling her music, says that while she is able to take care of herself and her band, crew and management with money from live shows, indie artists do not have the same luxury. She explains that her sentiments about the three-month free trial are echoed by "every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much."

She goes on to say that she understands Apple is working toward a goal of paid streaming and that Apple Music could be the first streaming service that "gets it right" in her eyes in regards to artist compensation. However, she also points out that Apple is "astronomically successful" and could afford to pay artists, writers and producers during the three-month free trial. She closes the open letter asking Apple to reconsider its policy.
This isn't the first time Apple has received criticism for not paying labels and artists royalties during the 3-month free trial. Last week, indie labels from the United Kingdom who housed artists like Adele argued that the trial period would "put people out of business". Singer-songwriter Anton Newcombe also spoke out about the policy, claiming the Cupertino company threatened to ban his music from iTunes if he did not accept no royalties during the 3-month free trial. Apple denied the claim.

Apple Music will launch in just under 10 days, going live on June 30 as part of an upcoming iOS 8.4 update. After the service's free three-month trial it will cost $9.99 per month for individuals and $14.99 a month for families up to 6.

Article Link: Taylor Swift Criticizes Apple Music's Free Trial in Open Letter

Like she needs the money,She makes money everyday off her songs & it's just appleMusic she won't be making money off for 3months.Talk about a greedy bitch.I could understand if she needed the money to feed starving people food but she's just sooking over giving back to her fans.(I'm not one of them)Steve jobs gave away majority of his money & he created the best company in the world & he was a billionaire,He couldn't care about money all he wanted was to innovate & Provide the World with Great Products.If he was alive today I reckon he would of just say "Don't put Taylor Swift on Our service"

 

[smorrissey]

Like she needs the money,She makes money everyday off her songs & it's just appleMusic she won't be making money off for 3months.Talk about a greedy bitch.I could understand if she needed the money to feed starving food but she's just sooking over giving back to her fans.(I'm not one of them)Steve jobs gave away majority of his money & he created the best company in the world & he was a billionaire,He couldn't care about money all he wanted was to innovate & Provide the World with Great Products.If he was alive today I reckon he would of just say "Don't put Taylor Swift on Our service"

This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.

 

[vladi]

Apple Music is such a middle finger to app developers. It pretty much says hey if you have a great idea and it generates noticeable dough then you can count on us to counter your feature right out of the box and take your pie cause we are the dough factory.

I truly hope EU will break Apple Music in some anti-trust case for offering preinstalled service on the device.

 

[samcraig]

And apple is giving 3 months free to the consumer so you don't have to pay a premium to see if you like service or not. And they are a bully? If you want them to pay the artists apple will request that you pay a premium. They are not anybody's friend. If they pay then the consumer pays. What's more important to you, your wallet or the recording artist that doesn't even know you're alive?

Why 3 months? Why do the artists get zero instead of something. If Apple really wants this to take off, why aren't they investing more to defer the cost? My point is - Apple doesn't need to do anyone any favors. Nor do the artists. As for the consumer - they already have ways to get the music they want - so again, if Apple wants to play in the market, the onus is on them to provide a product worth subscribing to. And if that means getting heat from artists who don't want to participate - they'll just have to deal with the heat. It's their choice to make.

They may not be bullying. But that doesn't mean they are excused from criticism.

Perhaps consumers need to understand that they aren't entitled to free crap ALL the time.

 

[AFDoc]

Yeah, but did the workers who built the test driven Lexus not get paid? Where they told "This month we are building vehicles to go to dealer rooms where they get test driven. since they don't get sold, we aren't paying you for these cars."

Your argument doesn't add up.....

huh? you cant hear a whole album on the radio and pick a song whenever you felt like it you were sitting in front of your recorder for 2 hours just to press record on the top 1 of 100 songs and if you wanted the whole album you actually had to pay for it

How do you think we did it before the days of digital music or cd's? Yes you would wait for that song to come on or you would listen to the weekly top 40 and tape all the songs you liked. Was I stealing it? I didn't pay for the radio waves yet I had mix tapes full of songs "pirated" right off the radio. Eventually I was able to get a double tape deck for dubbing and then I made friends tapes of tapes I made...... we were all a bunch of pirates I guess..... Arrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

[johngordon]

So you’re saying you’re willing to work free for 3 months to promote my new service, even though you might not be able to pay your bills? You are my hero, then.

I guess it’s no biggie if you die when you’re getting paid eventually.

OK - put your money where your mouth is and illustrate this whole "might not be able to pay your bills" thing with actual figures.

- how much a struggling artist typically earns in three months from Spotify's free tier.
- the % those earnings are of their total revenue from music.

From this graphic:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/infobeautiful2/selling_out_550.png

An artist needs around 330,000 streams to earn as much as a single album sale.

So if we assume a struggling artist has 330,000 streams (pretty unlikely by the way) in three months, their loss of earnings is the equivalent of having sold 1 less CD in that period.

If the difference between them paying their bills and them not paying their bills is just one album sale, then that's quite something.

I will happily be corrected on this if you would like to show how they wouldn't be able to pay their bills with alternative figures. Up to you.

But again, for all the huffing and puffing, the mistake in all of this is the gross over estimation of how much a struggling artist might earn from a free streaming service in 3 months.

 

[smorrissey]

I truly hope EU will break Apple Music in some anti-trust case for offering preinstalled service on the device.

They must.

 

[jumanji]

As someone who has worked with someone in the indie music industry and my one of my main customers being an artist, I can completely agree with Taylor Swift for once. Its a huge blow as many people won't get paid a single penny for this! As many people will be using he Apple music for free from June, any album released from July to October, none of those artists will be paid for what they what could be streamed a billion times!
People like Taylor can manage that but my friend and customer cannot cope with that - I will lose business also as they wont be able to pay my bills.
I understand a small start up doing this, but the worlds richest company? Can't it afford losing some money on trying to get this service going?
This is not a Problem for Taylor Swift and big bands, but its for the indie artists and the teenager artists in their bed rooms - working all night on a song!
And that to me is why I'm pleased Taylor has put her foot down and said no and that's also why I will still pay for Spotify.

Wait, wait, wait....this is a new service. You aren't depending on this service yet. If it proves successful, it will add more revenue to you and the music industry. It's a trial period...no one is going to quit spottily or pandora while they're trying this. It's an additional service which will add money to your pocket IF it succeeds.

 

[Paradoxally]

What Swift is doing might not change anything overnight but any huge historical change started as one stand that was unlikely to change anything and snowballed over time until it finally did. So you can't knock her for trying because someone at sometime has to be the first one to do it for it to ever get anywhere.

I disagree. She is no savior. Many said that her Spotify rant would change the world of music. Guess what? Nothing happened.

Swift thinks she has more power than she actually has.

 

[Flight Plan]

I think you're misunderstanding the terms and conditions of the subscription. It doesn't matter when you sign up it's always three months free. If you sign up at Christmas time it's still three months free so artists holding out until September does nothing.

Aaah, thank you for clarifying the rules.

 

[Paradoxally]

They must.

They must? You're not required to use Apple Music.

 

[vladi]

Like she needs the money,She makes money everyday off her songs & it's just appleMusic she won't be making money off for 3months.Talk about a greedy bitch.I could understand if she needed the money to feed starving people food but she's just sooking over giving back to her fans.(I'm not one of them)Steve jobs gave away majority of his money & he created the best company in the world & he was a billionaire,He couldn't care about money all he wanted was to innovate & Provide the World with Great Products.If he was alive today I reckon he would of just say "Don't put Taylor Swift on Our service"

Like Apple needs money. Apple makes money everyday and they can offer Apple Music for free for all of us while paying the artists properly. I' m sure they would not even feel a pinch since "Steve Jobs doesn't care about the money".

 

[smorrissey]

They must? You're not required to use Apple Music.

Do you remember Microsoft and the Internet Explorer issue on Europe? pretty much the same anti-trust case here or perhaps not. I mean Safari has been there for ages.

 

[Paradoxally]

Apple Music is such a middle finger to app developers. It pretty much says hey if you have a great idea and it generates noticeable dough then you can count on us to counter your feature right out of the box and take your pie cause we are the dough factory.

I truly hope EU will break Apple Music in some anti-trust case for offering preinstalled service on the device.

I totally disagree, but feel free to develop apps for Android and see how much Google pays you in comparison...

 

[smorrissey]

Apple Music is such a middle finger to app developers. It pretty much says hey if you have a great idea and it generates noticeable dough then you can count on us to counter your feature right out of the box and take your pie cause we are the dough factory.

I truly hope EU will break Apple Music in some anti-trust case for offering preinstalled service on the device.

Hey Safari has been for ages on the ios and the EU has done nothing. Microsoft was punished because of it...mmmm

 

[johngordon]

Is that guy supposed to be a comedian? he's bad.

He's a radio DJ - its just a bit of fun.