Live data from Hacker News

Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

techcrunch.com

51–60 of 152 posts

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#51
post #43

Musicians can complain when they want a bigger cut and it's fixed the next day. App developers and content producers get emailed 'we are taking more out of your cut' or 'if you don't want us to show ads near your content, reply to this email with "opt out"'

App developers who are as big in application consumption as Taylor Swift is in music would get the same treatment.

Sadly, I can't think of any developer that ubiquitous other than John Carmack...and he isn't even close to being active in this context.

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#52

Musicians can complain when they want a bigger cut and it's fixed the next day. App developers and content producers get emailed 'we are taking more out of your cut' or 'if you don't want us to show ads near your content, reply to this email with "opt out"'

I understand your point but your second line is completely inaccurate (at least, in regards to app developers). Apple have never changed the cut that app developers get nor have they ever shown unsolicited ads near/alongside/with apps.

The part about increasing the revenue cut is unfounded, but I assume the seconds part of that line is in regard to Apple News[1].

[1] https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/i-do-not-agree-to-your-terms....

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#53

Looks like a publicity stunt...

Yeah, but landed on the roof. The damage to Apple is done.

"Damage" being a ton of publicity and PR about their new streaming service? I wish I could be so "damaged".

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#54
post #44
post #11

What Apple should do is pay only the bottom 90% of artists and when someone downloads free music from one of the top grossing 10% of artists, the would-be revenue should be re-distributed to the bottom 90% during the users free trial. Taylor said herself that it wasn't about her, but about small artists trying to break through. I'd like to see her put her money where her mouth is, but hey, if it's all about money tha…

Or they could just promote the up-and-comers more aggressively. Instead of a redistribution of wealth (which would be talent agnostic) go for a redistribution of coverage. Also, if revenue was diverted completely from top artists to everyone else, what reason would there be for any of those top artists to be there? (Other than as a loss-leader for live shows and a "giving back to the community" sort of charitable thi…

>what reason would there be for any of those top artists to be there?

That's why they should do it. To get rid of the facade that this is about helping smaller artists and show people what artists really care about art and which ones care about money.

I'm personally offended by Swifts letter. I don't think she really cares about smaller artists, she was just using them to manipulate Apple.

We all know that Taylor will now get millions of free downloads and be compensated, meanwhile struggling artists will probably get pennies. Shes not helping anyone but her self.

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#55
post #18

I don't understand why everybody is reporting this as "Taylor Swift". Shouldn't it be "Taylor Swift's Management" or "Taylor Swift's Lawyers". She obviously didn't plan this.

She published it on her tumblr under her own name and seemingly in her own voice.

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#56

So, without making a judgement call on this actual decision. It amazes me that no one saw this type of reaction from artists (and the generally pro-artist consumer base) coming when the overall business plan was created. And that the concession was made so quickly...

...and now there's tons of free media that Swift's latest album will be on Apple Music (and not on Spotify)! I think this is a bit too much of a bank shot to have been planned ahead of time, but nice work by Eddy Cue and Apple PR to acquire and then cash in this bargaining chip in probably the most effective way possible.

"Bank shot" +"Eddie Cue" = nice billiards pun!

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#57

Some professional photographer is calling Taylor Swift out on her hypocrisy. http://nextshark.com/an-open-response-to-taylor-swifts-rant-...

That rant is absurd. If you are a photographer and you want to take photos of a famous musician on a very expensive and well produced stage you have to do it by her rules.

You can take photos of a model you pick on a stage you create and then you get to write the rules. Or you can even take a photo of Taylor Swift in a public place like a street or airport without any permission or rights issues.

You just can't take photos inside her private, for profit, and expensive to produce stage show unless you agree to her terms. You also can't walk on to a movie set with your own video camera and have the rights to that footage either.

On what planet is this surprising or problematic?

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#58

this was a BRILLIANT pr orchestration. blogs, articles, etc all over the globe were written about apple music, for free. would have been far more expensive to buy all that airtime than this little scandal. so taylor swift gets more publicity, apple music is now an established brand name, everyone and their dog knows about their pricing model - holy shit. hats off to the apple team, playing the outrage-piano like no o…

This. It's highly unlikely that some SVP would respond so swiftly (no pun intended) to a pop star.

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#59
post #58

this was a BRILLIANT pr orchestration. blogs, articles, etc all over the globe were written about apple music, for free. would have been far more expensive to buy all that airtime than this little scandal. so taylor swift gets more publicity, apple music is now an established brand name, everyone and their dog knows about their pricing model - holy shit. hats off to the apple team, playing the outrage-piano like no o…

This. It's highly unlikely that some SVP would respond so swiftly (no pun intended) to a pop star.

I think it's more unlikely that a change in business model would happen so quickly.

Given public presence and the way they are steering Apple Music, the personal response - regardless of planning - is less surprising.

Re: Apple Says “We Hear You Taylor Swift”, Will Pay Musicians During Free Trial

#60

Musicians can complain when they want a bigger cut and it's fixed the next day. App developers and content producers get emailed 'we are taking more out of your cut' or 'if you don't want us to show ads near your content, reply to this email with "opt out"'

Apple has actual competition for music sales (or music streaming). Namely Google Play Music, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon/Prime Music, Xbox Music, and even ye' olde CDs.

With apps, because of the ecosystem isolations, Apple has no competition for access to THEIR user base (which is significant). So even if Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc have their own apps stores of significant size, they aren't competing for Apple's users and thus cannot offer better terms than Apple.

Post reply on HN