Before Apple Music launched, some folks were taking issues with the fact that Apple didn’t plan on paying artists or labels during its three-month free trial period.
Most of those upset with the plans were those aforementioned artists and labels, but it appeared, until one night, that Apple wasn’t going to budge on the position. It took an open letter from popular artist Taylor Swift, criticizing Apple for their decision to not pay during that stretch of time, to actually get Apple to change their tune. The open letter actually surprised Swift’s label, but Apple’s change of heart ultimately led to the arrival of Swift’s latest album, “1989,” to show up on Apple Music — something that major rivals, like Spotify, can’t offer.
Now, in a new interview with Vanity Fair, Taylor Swift has opened up about that now famous open letter to Apple, giving some behind-the-scenes details on how the letter came to be, and what it took for her to actually publish it:
“I wrote the letter at around four A.M.,” Swift says. “The contracts had just gone out to my friends, and one of them sent me a screenshot of one of them. I read the term ‘zero percent compensation to rights holders.’ Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and I’ll write a song and I can’t sleep until I finish it, and it was like that with the letter.“
Swift notes in the interview that she actually wasn’t sure that the letter should be published, because she thought it might sound like she was whining, especially after having raised some of the same concerns just one year prior with Spotify. However, she showed the letter to her mom and asked her opinion, ultimately coming to the decision that it should be published after all.
Interestingly enough, Swift says she’s shocked at the reactions from Apple and Spotify, and just how different they are when faced with her criticism. Swift says she found it ironic that Spotify reacted the way it did, seeing as it’s a start-up with “no cash flow,” and how the higher-ups at the streaming music service reacted like “a corporate machine.” However, Apple, quite the opposite entity from Spotify, acted “with humility.”
“Says Swift, “Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about,” she says. “And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine.“
In the end, Swift’s open letter published on Tumblr was a big step for Apple and its Music service.
[via Vanity Fair]
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