The bad blood between Taylor Swift and Apple (AAPL) appears to have met a quick end.
Apple, which is launching its highly anticipated Apple Music streaming service on June 30, reversed its controversial payment policy on Sunday — one that T-Swift previously deemed so unfair that she refused to allow her latest album, 1989, to be available for streaming.
The prior policy wouldn’t have remunerated artists for songs streamed during Apple Music’s three-month free trial period. Taylor took issue with that, and penned an open letter to Apple on Saturday voicing her disgust:
“I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”
Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, responded just a day latter on Twitter with a series of tweets:
Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
Followed by:
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period — Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
And of course, the icing on the cake, replete with a mea culpa of sorts from the Apple exec:
We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
The Grammy-winning 25-year-old pop star responded almost immediately:
I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015
This isn’t Taylor’s first rodeo with music streaming services. She famously pulled her entire catalog of music, save one song, from Spotify in November, not a week after 1989’s chart-topping release. Her qualm? One of the not-so-popular consequences of free streaming platforms like Spotify and Pandora (P): uber-low royalties.
1989 still is not available for streaming on Spotify.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial penned by the pop icon in July 2014, Swift talks about how she envisions the future of the music industry, and she emphasized how important it is for artists to never sell themselves short:
“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”
Less than a year later, she’s walking the walk by taking on the largest company in the world … and winning.
As of this writing, John Divine was long shares of AAPL stock. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid or email him at editor@investorplace.com.
