In less than two weeks, Apple is officially unveiling its new music service, Apple Music. But things have been pretty shitty for the company lately, and they’re only getting shittier.
Recently, US trade group A2IM (American Association Of Independent Music) — which represents labels such as Drag City, Mute, Domino, Merge, DFA, and Secretly Canadian — wrote to its members criticizing Apple’s decision to not compensate artists and labels during the free 90-day trial period. According to A2IM CEO Alison Wenham, “Apple is asking the independent music sector to hedge its risk, to fund their customer acquisition programme and to shoulder the financial burden for their global launch.”
The statement seems to have caused a Domino effect, as Beggars Group — which includes 4AD, Matador, XL Recordings, and Rough Trade — has penned its own statement, revealing that it has yet to reach an agreement with Apple. “We are naturally very concerned, especially for artists releasing new albums in the next three months, that all streaming on the new service will be unremunerated until the end of September. Whilst we understand the logic of their proposal and their aim to introduce a subscription-only service, we struggle to see why rights owners and artists should bear this aspect of Apple’s customer acquisition costs.”
Read A2IM’s statement here, Beggars statement here, and look out for statements by PC Music, Bootleg Tapes, Ascetic House, Bathetic, Opal Tapes, Orange Milk, and 1080p never.
• Beggars Group: http://beggars.com
• A2IM: http://a2im.org