Apple has sudden change of heart, will pay artists for trial period

After being publicly smacked down by music’s biggest star, Apple is changing its tune. Late Sunday night, Apple VP Eddy Cue responded to the open letter that Taylor Swift posted earlier in the day, revealing that Apple now plans to pay artists, labels, and publishers for streams during Apple Music’s three-month free trial. The premium streaming service is due to launch on June 30th.

Taylor Swift just outsmarted one of the biggest, richest, and most arrogant companies on earth. Impressive.

The fact that Apple announced this sudden tail-between-its-legs change of heart in the middle of the night (might’ve been late Sunday night for US – I suck at timezones), via Twitter no less, is indicative of how badly thought-out this whole Apple Music thing seems to be. The presentation during WWDC was awkward, the three month trial period heavily criticised, and now this. Curious.

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