Apple To Pay Musical Artists During Free Trial Of Apple Music

After a very public protest from pop music superstar Taylor Swift, Apple has decided to announce that it will be paying royalties to musical artists during Apple Music's free trial. 

Swift had posted on her Tumblr blog last Sunday that she was looking to remove her best selling album 1989 from the Apple Music streaming service upon its scheduled launch next week. Her reason for withdrawing her music -- Apple was not willing to pay royalties on any song streamed during the free trial period (first three months of being launched) of Apple Music.

This latest tension between Taylor Swift and Apple is just another example of the constant friction between recording artists and music streaming services. Most musicians are in the belief that they are not being properly compensated for the art they created. Music streaming service providers, on the other hand, believe that these musicians actually are. 

Apple Music is no exception to this, and this is interesting to note because the service is not actually live yet, and here it is already finding itself in disagreement with one of the hottest musical artists today. Apple's music streaming service was supposed to be dealing with the existing competition (Spotify, Pandora, Tidal), not with one of the best selling recording artists of all time.

If it is any consolation to Apple, it is not the only service that Swift has had problems with. Some may recall that the singer songwriter also had a spat with Spotify over royalty payments. Swift, for her part, claims that it is not about the money, or more specifically, about her money. She is doing it for every young songwriter out there who may not be getting his or her cut if the songs he or she wrote, recorded, or produced gets played on Apple Music during its free three month trial run. 

Fortunately, Apple was quick to reverse its policy. The company's vice president of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, quickly tweeted that Apple was in fact going to pay musical artists, even during the entire three month free trial period. 

Apple Music is Apple's first foray into music streaming subscription services. It was largely the result of the company's $3 billion acquisition of Beats last year. For years, the company has been a little reluctant to enter into music streaming. But recent trends show that music streaming is actually on the rise, and Apple is clearly taking advantage of the shift. 

But the road to success is replete with bumps, as this latest Swift disagreement demonstrates. For sure, there will be more ahead, and Apple will have to ready itself to face the music.