To Apple, Love Taylor
I write this to explain why I’ll be holding back my album, 1989, from the new streaming service, Apple Music. I feel this deserves an explanation because Apple has been and will continue to be one of my best partners in selling music and creating ways for me to connect with my fans. I respect the company and the truly ingenious minds that have created a legacy based on innovation and pushing the right boundaries.
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. 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.
This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.
These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much. We simply do not respect this particular call.
I realize that Apple is working towards a goal of paid streaming. I think that is beautiful progress. We know how astronomically successful Apple has been and we know that this incredible company has the money to pay artists, writers and producers for the 3 month trial period… even if it is free for the fans trying it out.
Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing. I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple has done. I hope that soon I can join them in the progression towards a streaming model that seems fair to those who create this music. I think this could be the platform that gets it right.
But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.
Taylor
wow
w o w
i wish I WISH that instead of taking time out of your days rehashing the same three topics over bad hip hop beats and parading around the city streets with empty miu miu bags, that you had not spread this over the world wide web via tumblr dot com and had chosen instead to type this up on a typewriter into one and only one document
then i wish that a single glass of milk could have spilled onto it, ruining it forever
or perhaps even a small cup of red strawberry kool-aid
or that maybe that your cats would have eaten it just to assert animal dominance and that it would’ve slowly travelled through their digestive systems until it finally arrived as the absolute pile of shit it was destined to be from the moment your very privileged hands ever touched a key
but alas here we are, all of us having to read this with our very own eyes
This is no surprise considering that Taylor Swift has shown us before that she does not care about her fans who don’t have money to throw at her. If she doesn’t make enough money from something, she pulls her music even though we all know good and damn well she has more than enough to support herself. And she can cover it up all she wants by saying it’s because she supports smaller artists, but why not support them by actually supporting them? Get them exposure, get their music, and talent out there, and help them out since you know you have the resources. This has fuck all to do with supporting smaller artists and everything to do with her being fucking greedy.
This fucking prime capitalist elitist “only people who have enough money to pay for art should be able to enjoy it” bullshit is the main reason why I can’t respect her as a feminist but hey she did learn everything she knows from Lena Dunham so what are we to expect?
I have to disagree with you guys. The real villains here are Apple and Spotify. The fact that one of the biggest companies in the world doesn’t want to shell out the money for music streamed over a trial period is blasphemy. It’s insulting to artists. Not everyone has the big bucks of major labels backing them and it’s their income. She’s doing it in protest not because of greed. Other people should follow her lead. The amount of money artists get when their music is streamed is usually insultingly low. When music is streamed it also deters people from purchasing music. Which artists get so little a cut from as it is. It really is about supporting artists. Taylor can keep her music from those platforms if she wants to. It’s hers. It costs a lot of money to make and promote and album like hers. Her label won’t support her if she doesn’t make he sales. Artists deserve way more than they get from streaming services, and Apple definitely has the money to pay them appropriately.
