Comment by bedhead | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bedhead | Hacker News Reader

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I really, really lament Apple caving in on this. The deal they had before was perfectly reasonable - everyone's interests were aligned and both sides brought something to the table. Apple wasn't paying royalties during the trial because it makes perfect sense to have a model that says, "you make money when we make money." Besides, we all know that streaming revenues for everyone except the top .1% of artists are largely irrelevant, especially during a mere three month window.

It's obvious that Taylor Swift was motivated by one thing and one thing only: maximizing her own revenue. That's it...and that's fine. But I cannot stand her disingenuous "won't someone think of the children?!" nonsense. It's like LeBron James publicly pleading for the NBA to share more of its revenue so that the younger players can be better off in retirement, while leaving out the fact that he'll personally take 90% of any incremental revenue. Taylor Swift seemed so concerned about other people, but I sure don't see her offering a pay cut or anything. Instead she successfully guilted Apple into paying because they've got a ton of money. Pathetic.

I'm trying to understand why you think it's bad that Taylor Swift tries to maximize her own revenue, but it's fine that Apple does the same, using her likeness and music to do so.

This is the question all of the detractors need to ask themselves.

Honestly, when I first heard of the story (word of mouth) I immediately thought she was not understanding how it really worked. I had flashbacks to Metallica resisting streaming because they just didn't understand it. I thought there was no way Apple _actually_ wouldn't pay artists during those three months, so I dismissed it.

Then I realized she was right.

I wouldn't say I'm a Taylor Swift fan (at best, some of her music is fun to listen to with my teenaged niece) but the amount of ire some people have for a pretty person is just astounding. Yes, she's pretty. Yes, she sings about things that tend to be targeted at teens, especially girls. But those points don't change anything.

The letter accurately said, "These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child." I have no idea how many people are behind her persona (I would guess it takes the equivalent of a small town) but I bet some of them had a stake in helping craft the letter. This was a business-to-business correspondence, even if it was written 'as a girl'.

At the worst, she's a logo for a company. At the best, she's actually got a pretty solid sense of business. Either way, she has a right to use her persona to make money.

"All detractors"? Evidently I'm the only one :)

Heh, I was sort of wrapping all of the negative comments I've seen (HN and otherwise) into a singular reply.

I'm fine with Taylor Swift maximizing her own revenue...if she was simply honest about it. She is demonstrably not. She decided to turn it into a moral crusade and in her own words, "This is not about me." I am so turned off by it. Do you really think it's a coincidence that the only artist to write a big open letter to Apple about this was the one who stood to profit the most from it?????

Oh I agree with you there, if Taylor herself is solely responsible for this note. The weird thing is, although we use "she" to describe Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift is a coordinated business. This memo is really just a correspondence between two large businesses.

Could be a bit of a stretch, and this note wouldn't be made public if she didn't sign off on it, but I think this is more measured than an artist just pushing for revenue.

I honestly think Taylor Swift wrote this entire letter herself. She famously takes pride in writing her own music and going out of her way to say things that go beyond promoting herself. (Fwiw I kinda like her album) But she's wrong here, and I intensely dislike how she's manipulating the situation by reducing it to, "Apple has a lot of money and smaller artists don't." It's actually wildly business-savvy on her part.

When she previously removed her album from Spotify she implicitly let it be known what her motivations were: maximizing her own revenue, even if it was at the expense of other musicians. End of story. She would rather you give your $12 entirely to her instead of Spotify (or another album), which spreads it around. And I'm totally fine with that decision since she might seriously be the only musician alive with enough juice to get away with it. But the point remains that she's already made her motives perfectly clear, so when she wrote that letter to Apple it was purely about making sure she got paid during that three month trial. Of course, other artists will get to ride her coat-tails some, so she played up that angle and pretended it was a moral crusade. If she tells Apple, "Tell you what, take the money you'd pay me during those three months and distribute it evenly to everyone else." then I'd applaud her. Until then, she's a hypocrite going after more money.

If the deal were considered in isolation you might have a point, but you need to consider the competitive landscape and why Apple wants to offer the 3 month free trial. (I don't agree with your being down-voted, you're posting a valid oppinion, just one I happen not to agree with).

Apple is offering a 3 month free trial in order to win market share for their service from the established streaming services. Doing that benefits Apple but does not benefits artists.

Say I'm a Spotify subscriber. I cancel my Spotify service and switch to the Apple service. Artists suffer a 3 month gap in revenue during which they're not being paid either by Spotify or Apple for my listending to their music. The only people who really benefit are Apple who now get a split of the revenue instead of spotify, and the only people who really lose out are the artists who lost 3 months pay.

There's no reason artists should have to forgoe revenue in order to benefit Apple in that way.

You are talking about a three month gap for a small minority of users, who will then become paying subs for presumably many years, locked in to the world's most powerful ecosystem, at HIGHER royalty rates, with a company that is insanely well-funded and will promote the hell out of it. This is a bad thing???

There is give and take to every deal. Telling artists, "you make money when we make money" is perfectly, 100% reasonable, especially considering each side was bringing important things to the table.

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