Late Sunday night, Apple announced that it would be filling the black-hole-sized void it had planned for record labels in 2015: the tech giant will be compensating artists for the use of their work during Apple Music‘s free three-month trial period.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it wasn’t the numerous requests and protests from indie labels and trade groups that moved Apple senior vice president of Internet services and software Eddy Cue but an open letter from America’s most powerful sweetheart, Taylor Swift. “I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” Swift wrote of Apple’s initial intention to not pay artists, writers, producers, and labels for their goods.
According to Billboard, Apple will now be absorbing the cost of the 90-day trial on their own. “We’re certainly paying for it, yes,” said Cue. “We’re all in.”
So thanks, Taylor. As a tribute, here’s Screaming Females covering Swift’s “Shake It Off.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm1-bVYio1k
