After waging a war against Apple Music in the name of indie artists, Taylor Swift has finally decided that she will let fans stream her newest album, 1989, on Apple Music when the service launches last week.
Swift announced her decision to make the album available on Twitter this morning, saying it’s the first time she’s felt right in her gut that now is the time to embrace streaming.
DJ Zane Lowe is clearly intent on getting Beats 1 kicked off with a bang, since he has posted an image to Instagram revealing that hip-hop artist Eminem will be his first guest interview when Apple Music launches next week.
Lowe joined Apple from BBC Radio 1 earlier this year, where he had previously interviewed top-tier music names including Eminem, Kanye West, Jay Z, Rick Rubin, and Chris Martin.
Having agreed to pay out royalties to music artists during the initial three-month trial period of Apple Music, Apple will reportedly pay rights holders 0.2 cents per stream, according to a new report.
This rate is similar to that paid by other streaming companies, such as Spotify, for their free tier. Apple is also said to be still negotiating a smaller free for songwriting rights which be paid to publishers.
Taylor Swift, who made Apple blink this week by criticizing the company for initially denying musicians royalties during the free trial period of its new streaming service, now has her gaze square on the photographer who implied her stance is hypocritical.
Swift, through a spokesperson in England, said music photographer Jason Sheldon misrepresented the contract shooters sign before her concerts, saying it does not force them to sign away the rights to their shots.
Pharrell Williams has been Apple’s BFF lately, but when it comes to the battle between Apple and Taylor Swift, Skateboard P is on Team Taytay.
The eleven-time Grammy award winning artist spoke at the Cannes Lions Festival today (where Apple just scooped up a big award), and said that what Taylor did was a great thing for music.
Indie musicians haven’t been too keen on Apple’s music streaming service that originally planned to cut them out of a paycheck for three months. Now that Taylor Swift has won her battle against Apple Music, thousands of indie artists are changing their tune toward the upcoming service.
The Taylor Swift/Apple Music controversy has reignited discussion about what exactly the trend toward music streaming is going to do to artists.
If you’re concerned that your favorite singer isn’t getting enough dough, you may be interested to check out Eternify, a brand new website which lets users play any song they want from Spotify’s catalog in loops lasting 30 seconds — gradually racking up pay-per-stream royalties for the artist or band in question.
“Music streaming’s virtually worthless for artists,” the website reads. “But we can change that.”
Apple Music is ready to launch in just seven days, and it looks like it’s coming with some exclusive songs too.
Pharrell tweeted out a short video of an unreleased song ‘Freedom’ this morning. Based on the tweet, it looks like the song could be part of a new album that’s coming exclusively to Apple Music.
Check out a short snippet of it below:
Google is hoping to distract you from Apple Music’s impending launch with a new streaming plan that won’t cost you a penny. Available on desktop and mobile platforms, the service lets you enjoy a whole host of curated playlists supported by ads.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has had some issues with music platforms in the past, but when it comes to Apple Music, he’s completely on board.
The outspoken musician spoke at creativity festival Cannes Lions and declared his complete approval of how Apple is handling its upcoming streaming service.
Billy Corgan is an outspoken guy. The Smashing Pumpkins frontman turned semi-pro wrestler is known to speak out when he’s got an opinion, especially about politics. And he’s none too happy about what Apple’s been doing with Apple Music.
From the suggestion that the Earth is actually hollow to accusations that Jay Z and Beyonce are the world’s most famous Illuminati members, the Internet is nothing if not great for spreading crazy conspiracy theories.
In the wake of the recent Apple/Taylor Swift confrontation over Apple Music, there’s another one to add to the list: That the whole thing was staged to promote Apple’s new streaming music service.
And based on the number of times it’s already being mentioned, a surprising number of people believe it.
Taylor Swift is a shrewd business woman and thought she was speaking for all the little artists when she told Apple to kiss off when it comes to featuring her album 1989 on its new music streaming service.
To not pay artists during Apple Music’s free three-month trial period is exploitive, the singer-songwriter suggested, not to mention “shocking” and “disappointing.”
So forgive music photographer Jason Sheldon if he is unable to Shake It Off and is bothered by the hypocrisy of her stance. Editorial photographers assigned to shoot her shows must sign away rights to their photos, preventing them from being paid while giving Swift unlimited use of the pictures for publicity and promotion.
Taylor Swift may have announced she was shaking off Apple Music last week, but today she published an open letter to Apple explaining in more detail why her hit “1989” album won’t be joining the other 30 million songs available on Apple’s streaming music service when it launches.
“I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service,” Swift writes. “I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”
An Apple spokesperson claims that the company will not remove artists who decline to sign up for Apple Music from the iTunes Store.
This is the latest development in the tense negotiations leading up to the streaming service’s launch on June 30, with indie musicians and labels claiming that Apple is trying to bully and coerce them into putting their music on the new platform.
Apple Music will boast over 30 million songs when it launches at the end of June, but Taylor Swift has decided to leave a blank space where her 1989 album would’ve been.
The announcement of Apple Music last week was certain to stir up a bit of controversy, and sure enough some corners of the music industry are starting to speak out against the (arguably harsh) terms Apple’s dictated.
Among them is the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR), which represents independent labels in Oz. Their beef with Apple? Dissatisfaction at the company’s three-month trial period for users, during which Apple will pay out no royalties to artists since it won’t be making any money itself.
“Having now had over a week to reflect on the launch of Apple Music, AIR is not satisfied that the deal being offered under this new initiative is fair or equitable to independent music companies,” a statement from the organization reads.
GarageBand for Mac is getting a sonic upgrade with 10 new drum settings and 100 new synth sounds designed for electronic dance music and hip-hop tracks.
The new features are coming June 30 — just in time for the launch of Apple Music.
When Apple Music launches at the end of June you won’t have to pay a cent to listen to all the music your ears can hear for the first three months. If you want to keep using Apple Music after the three month trial period though you’ll have to fork over $10 a month, and according to a new report it’s paying out more to the record labels than Spotify.
Not everybody has two-and-a-half hours to watch an Apple event. Tim Cook and crew delivered tons of updates at the kickoff for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and you can speed through all the news with this WWDC 2015 keynote supercut.
It’s just two-and-a-half minutes long!
Why is Leander super-excited about Apple’s new Beats 1 radio service?
It’s simple, really: For him, listening to BBC Radio 1 was possibly the greatest thing about growing up in England in the ’70s. More importantly, it’s still how he discovers loads of new music today — and Apple’s 24/7 live internet radio station promises that same kind of magic.
Get the lowdown in the latest Kahney’s Korner video.
Developers have been busy combing through the first iOS 9 beta for clues about upcoming Apple services, but in the lastest iOS 8.4 beta that was also seeded to developers earlier this week, the first signs of the Apple Music streaming service have started popping up (literally).
Some iOS 8.4 beta testers have received pop-up notifications in the old Music app. The introductory prompts reveal how Apple plans to get iOS users to sign up for the new service, either on an individual plan or family plan.
Here’s signup screen users will be greeted by:
Apple Music may come with a long list of advantages over rivals like Spotify — such as real radio and a super-affordable family plan — but there’s one thing it’s lagging behind on, and that’s music quality… or so it seems.
The highest bitrate Apple Music will offer is 256 kbps, which is lower than the 320 kbps offered by Spotify, Rdio, Tidal, and Apple’s own Beats Music service.
During Monday’s introduction of Apple Music at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said “over 100 countries” will have access to its music-streaming/social/radio platform when it launches June 30. But it didn’t say which countries those would be.
We’ve done some investigating, and we’re pretty sure we’ve got a good idea of who’s definitely getting their dance on. Check out our map below.
Apple’s two-hours-plus keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week was packed with new and exciting information about the future of software for its current major hardware. But we couldn’t help but notice some things that were missing.
Here are some of the ways Apple’s presentation left us hanging this year.