Taylor Swift Is Not the Hero of The Music Industry

The Takeaway | Jun 23, 2015

Taylor Swift has convinced Apple to pay royalties during a three-month trial period of its new streaming service, Apple Music. 

“We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation,” she wrote in an open letter titled "To Apple, Love Taylor." 

Even though Swift has never been short on compensation, this isn't the first time she has called out a streaming service. Back in November, she pulled her music from Spotify after she argued that artists weren't being sufficiently compensated.

But are streaming services even designed to fairly compensate artists? They're not really selling music as much as they're renting it out. Will Swift's three months of compensation amount to anything substantial for independent artists and labels?

Jeff Price, the CEO of Audiam, a music licensing company that focuses specifically on streaming services, says one complaint from Taylor Swift isn't going to fix the fundamental problems with the music industry.

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