Taylor Swift confirmed via Twitter that her mega-hit album 1989 would be streamed by Apple's new Apple Music service. Swift's music will still be unavailable to stream on Spotify, from which the singer pulled her catalog last year while criticizing streaming services for devaluing music.
Earlier this week, Swift wrote an open letter criticizing Apple for refusing to pay artist royalties to musicians whose work was streamed by subscribers to the service during the initial three-month free trial period being offered by the new service. Swift claimed that, while she herself did not need the royalties to survive, struggling musicians and producers were dependent upon the payments, which were unfairly being withheld by Apple.
The company capitulated to Swift's demands almost immediately, leading some to wonder if the whole scenario was actually a conspiracy to publicize the new service. Now, Swift has tweeted that she will allow her album to stream on Apple Music upon its June 30 debut.
"After the events of this week, I've decided to put 1989 on Apple Music ... and happily so," she proclaimed. "In case you're wondering if this is some exclusive deal like you've seen Apple do with other artists, it's not." She completed her series of tweets by explaining, "This is simply the first time it's felt right in my gut to stream my album. Thank you, Apple, for your change of heart."
Swift's own change of heart does not appear to include Spotify, however. Swift made big news late last year when she pulled all of her music, including 1989, off of the popular streaming service. Swift's beef was apparently that streaming services in general devalued the work of the artists that created it, but fans are now left wondering what differentiates Apple Music from Spotify in her eyes. While Spotify has an ad-supported free tier for listeners, it also has an ad-free subscription service similar to Apple Music and pays artist royalties on streams of both tiers. Swift has yet to clarify why Apple Music is acceptable for streaming her music whereas Spotify is not.
