Apple Music wins back indie labels after a Swift U-turn

Having agreed these terms, Pope says that PIAS endorsed and signed the agreement with Apple Music. “We think Apple Music provides artists with a business model that’s good for the long-term and we look forward to its launch”.

Now, according to reports, at least 71.5 percent of the revenue Apple Music garners in sales will go to royalties, but the tech giant hasn’t yet rolled out a plan for how it will pay during the free-trial period.

Last week we reported that while the major labels have pretty much all signed on with Apple for Apple Music, the indie labels were the ones who were giving Apple the biggest resistance.

The Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), the organization that represents independent music acts and businesses around the world, said it would endorse Apple Music “on behalf of their members”.

Martin Mills, the founder of Beggars Group, added: “Over the last few days we have had increasingly fruitful discussions with Apple“. Artists are free not to use Connect if they prefer not to.

Apple Music is set to launch on June 30.

As The Verge points out, this isn’t the first time someone has come up with a way of gaming the means by which streaming music services pay musicians.

Choosing to respond to Taylor Swift and not the earlier pressures from other labels has led some people to question if this was just Apple taking an opportunity for some positive PR, considering that Spotify ignored Swift’s complaints about its free tier. The paperwork for the “1989” tour and other Swift treks totally sidesteps paying for shots taken by outside photographers by declaring in the contract for the show that the performer and her agency have the right to use the photos is any “non-commercial” manner they see fit (a nebulous area, to be sure).

Apple has a long standing, deep rooted relationship with the music community and has always helped ensure artists get paid for their work.