Apple’s brand new music streaming service Apple Music will allegedly not be paying artists, labels and publishers a dime for plays coming from free trial accounts, a leaked Apple contract states. Furthermore, the document has shed light on the fact that Apple apparently pays less royalties from their turnover than Spotify.
See also: So Should Apple Music Be Spotify’s Biggest Fear Now?
Digital Music News was able to get their hands on the contract for Apple’s new streaming service and found out about the news that will probably not fall too great with the artists whose music is featured in the tech giant’s long-awaited answer to Spotify, as all users of Apple’s new service will receive a free three month trial before switching over to a $9,99-a-month subscription – a considerable amount of time, especially for small, beginning artists who have to make ends meet.
Another remarkable discovery is information regarding the percentage of revenues that will eventually be paid out to the rights holders. While Spotify pays artists 70% of gained revenues in royalties, Apple is planning on paying 58%, however. Whether these numbers, either for Spotify or Apple, are completely accurate is of course questionable, as a lot of other factors are in play regarding these kind of financial constructions.
This is nevertheless the second case of bad PR for Apple Music in just three days after its official announcement at WWDC last Monday. Yesterday news broke that the service is already under investigation in various US states for its alleged practice of ruthless contract agreements with major labels.
Source: Dummy Mag
