“AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming during customer’s free trial period”

Well look at that - good on Apple for correcting course and doing the right thing.

Actually not that surprising, Taylor Swift was featured heavily in Apple's promo video (first album art featured), so clearly contracts were in place. TS was Apple's secret weapon and could be a key differentiator from Spotify. (TS has no music on Spotify.) I think TS was in a really good bargaining position. If she had pulled out, it would have been a big loss for Apple Music. Smart Move.

The extraordinarily cynical side of me wonders if this is all just a massive co-branding PR exercise to dominate the news cycle with "Taylor Swift", "Apple", "Free Music", "Apple Music." Highly unlikely because it's not the type of underhanded marketing that Apple engages in, but man - All I've been reading about, seeing in my twitter feed, is talk about the 90 Day free Music Trial with Apple coming up.

This has been far, far better marketing exercise than their WWDC keynote.

I'm really glad to hear that they changed their minds on this one, though it's sad they needed public shaming to do the right thing. Most people don't really appreciate how hard it is to make money with music, nor the insane amount of time and effort that goes into even a single, professional quality song. This isn't a win for the big name, Taylor Swift type artists, but rather the ones she mentioned in her blog post that are just trying to make ends meet, where every penny and possible source of income counts.

Spotify is truly fucked if Apple is going to pay during the free trial AND pay higher overall royalties. When the negotiations come up again with Spotify, who is already running increasing losses, things will just get worse.