Taylor Swift vs. Apple: Payers Gonna Pay

Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate but Taylor Swift was not just going to Shake It Off when Apple announced they were not going to be paying her royalties for 3 months.   

It appears that a new foe has entered the music wars, one that nobody anticipated coming: the artists. If you are a bit confused about what we mean by the music wars, then we suggest reading our blog post Apple vs. Spotify.

Last week, Apple announced that they would be offering a 3-month free trial to their new music streaming service Apple Music. From a marketing standpoint, this is a smart way to reach a very broad audience base that is somewhat wary to try a subscription based model. Taking a page out of the MMORPG subscription model was a very smart choice on the part of Apple in the hopes of converting these consumers to actual subscribers.

Their misstep occurred when they drew the ire of T. Swift. After making their announcement of the three month free trial, it came to light that the artists would not receive royalties for any plays that their songs received during that trial.

Needless to say, a lot of artists were upset.

Adele’s label pulled out instantly and very quietly. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, took to social media in an open letter to Apple. Swift’s comments almost instantly went viral as her ravenous supporters agreed with her. Just over 15 hours passed before Apple recanted and said they would pay royalties to the artists during that trial, albeit at a lower rate.

The old adage is that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but in this case it would seem that there is already a pending distrust of Apple Music. Do you think this is the case or will people still flock to it in droves?