Taylor Swift once put Apple on blast and prompted big Apple Music change

Apple and Taylor Swift are each bigger successes today than ever before. 10 years ago though, they found themselves on opposite sides of a major issue that could have unraveled the successful launch of Apple Music. Here’s what happened.

Apple’s transition to streaming music faced a critical last-minute challenge

10 years ago, Apple was gearing up for its highly anticipated launch of Apple Music.

The company had spent $3 billion to acquire Beats, with a major motivator being the buzzy Beats Music streaming service.

At the time, Apple had a long history of innovation in the music space, as evidenced by the success of the iPod and iTunes. Both came at critical points in the industry’s transition to digital.

But Beats Music and especially Spotify were on the cutting edge of another huge transition: the switch to streaming.

Though Apple often prefers to build its own solutions rather than acquiring them (see: Apple TV+), its splashy, expensive Beats acquisition was the rare exception.

Apple Music was built on the foundation of Beats Music, and aimed to propel Apple to success in the streaming era.

But shortly before its launch, Apple had a problem: Taylor Swift was not happy.

Apple and Taylor Swift fought and made up 10 years ago

About a week before Apple Music’s June 30 debut, Swift published a very public critique of Apple.

She announced she was withholding her newest album, 1989, from the streamer.

Why? Because of Apple’s decision not to pay artists for streams during Apple Music’s initial three-month free trial period.

The argument was simple. Swift wrote:

We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.

Thus arrived a whirlwind of controversy in the lead-up to Apple Music’s launch.

The stakes were high, with Apple wanting to position itself as a more “artist friendly” streamer than Spotify.

Ultimately, it didn’t take long for Apple to concede.

In several posts shared on Twitter, services boss Eddy Cue shared the good news that Apple Music would be changing its planned payment policy.

Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic

#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period

We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple

The move was applauded by many in the artist community, and averted what could have been a major distraction from Apple Music’s launch.

It also prompted Taylor Swift’s own pivot regarding her popular album.

A few days after Cue shared the update, Swift announced that 1989 would be coming to Apple Music after all—and continue being absent from Spotify.

10 years later, Swift and Apple have both gotten bigger than ever before. And Apple Music, while still very much trailing Spotify in subscriber count, has avoided any such big artist controversies ever since.

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