Artist Payments For Apple Music's Trial Period

The world has been in an uproar over Apple Music's free trial period over the last week or so, and now that the company has agreed to pay artists and songwriters, the only question that remained was how much it would pay to artists and composers.

That question has finally been answered. Apple will pay around 0.2 cents for every play during the free trial period, an amount equivalent to what Spotify pays on its free tier as well.

Apple had originally proposed paying out 71.5% of its income instead of 70% after the trial period to make up for the shortfall, but the straight payment per play felt fairer to everyone involved.

This amount will cost Apple some money, but with $178 Billion (yes, with a B) of cash on hand, it can afford it.

The fact of the matter is that Apple doesn't have to make money with Music since its business thrives on hardware. This puts it at a distinct advantage over other services like Pandora and Spotify that rely on the income to keep the lights on.

The royalty dustup was actually a good thing for Apple Music in that it kept the service in the public spotlight for another week after the announcement, proving that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

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