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Two months after Taylor Swift published a letter urging the company to reconsider Apple Music's stance on royalties, a Beats Music executive has revealed how Apple reacted to her calls.
After it was announced that artists would receive nothing for the streaming of their material during the three month, free trial period, Swift initially refused to allow her music to be used and penned a blog post in criticism of the company.
In response, Apple swiftly backtracked and agreed to pay artists. The speed of the policy reversal led some, more cynical, cultural commentators to question whether it was all a publicity stunt.
Now, Jimmy Iovine, has revealed how the company reacted in the immediate aftermath. In an interview with the Evening Standard, he said: "Eddy [Cue, Apple senior VP] woke up on Sunday morning. He called me and said, 'This is a drag’. I was like, 'Yeah, maybe there’s some stuff she doesn’t understand'.
"He said, 'Why don’t you give Scott [Borchetta, Swift’s label boss] a call?' I called Scott, I called Eddy back, Eddy and Tim [Cook, Apple CEO] called me back and we said, 'Hey, you know what, we want this system to be right and we want artists to be comfortable, let’s do it'.
Swift's fifth album, 1989, was released last year, and is now streaming on Apple Music after all.
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