Streaming : Taylor Swift vs. Apple
Hours after the pop musician Taylor Swift criticized Apple company in an open letter posted online, Apple announced Sunday that it will pay royalties to artists and record labels for music played during a free, three-month trial of its new streaming music service. (Source)
鈥淚 could imagine that Taylor Swift's stance about streaming music and related royalties may reflect other artists' opinions.
Many artists, for example, those early in their music careers, do not have enough of a following to make money off of concerts and merchandise and often depend on every penny of revenue that they can get from distributing their content through streaming/downloading sites.
It is respectful of Apple to hear this and act on it so quickly.
I would argue that the resolution of this particular conversation should not end the discussion on setting fair streaming royalties, and instead should continue it.鈥�
- Jui Ramaprasad
Expert: Jui Ramaprasad, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Desautels Faculty of Management
Expertise: She teaches 鈥楾he Treble Cliff: The Business of Music鈥�, an interdisciplinary course with students and faculty/lecturers from Law, Music, Education, Arts, and Management, which tackles the issues that music and other media industries are currently facing from multiple perspectives.
Contact: jui.ramaprasad [at] mcgill.ca. Prof. Ramaprasad will answer by email and can answer in English and French.
