Taylor Swift On Apple Music

She's right but she's wrong.

Apple should pay, but Swift acts like she's above the rules, that she isn't involved in music business shenanigans.

In other words, while she's at it why doesn't she tackle breakage, free goods, radio shows, concert accounting...

It's a dirty business and Jimmy Iovine is too stupid to realize he's no longer working at Interscope. In other words, the transparency's killing him. And you don't want to piss off Taylor Swift's fans, believe me, I know.

This is typical music business. You help me and I help you. I'm delivering this great new service that's gonna save music, so you've got to help me out. The same way manufacturers help retailers out with fixtures and advertising.

Only Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

How stupid can it be.

Because the company should be paying. It's got the cash. And what ever money is involved pales in comparison to the bad blood stirred up by extracting this pound of flesh.

I expect movement here. I expect Apple to extend an olive branch.

Because it's pissing off the indies too. And Martin Mills has got a fraction of the power of Taylor Swift, but at least he's on the right side, as opposed to the fat cats in bed with Jimmy Iovine.

First the Watch, now this. Apple's playing a bad tune.

There seems to be a belief that Apple can save the music industry, that it can do no wrong, that with one pass of its wand it can change consumer behavior around the world. And to believe this is to ignore the history of the internet, where people find holes in the dike, however small, and then make them bigger and bigger and... People will sign up for Apple Music in droves, they like free. They like free so much that they'll cancel their subscriptions when payment is necessary, three months down the line. The same way they cancel cable. You think parents are not gonna see that charge every month? You think America's middle class, what's left of it, is awash in cash? The iPod only took off when the price was lowered. But you could never get one for free. Apple's family plan is a good start, but it's competing against YouTube.

Where Taylor Swift's music remains. Because she likes the money from the ads.

But credit Ms. Swift, she's the most powerful person in music in America, and unlike her popular brethren, she's standing up for something. But if it weren't for YouTube and iTunes, she'd be standing up for nothing at all. Apple's streaming service isn't hurting her today, but tomorrow...

It's kind of like that "Twilight Zone" episode "To Serve Man." The three majors are blindly walking in to Apple's camp. Believing the company's intentions are all good, when...

Now the truth is there tends to be one winner online. One entity with 60%+ market share. And that will happen in streaming music. And it just might be Apple Music that wins.

But not necessarily.

It might be a good idea to partner with a less powerful entity.

Then again, that's what the three majors did. They've got a piece of Spotify...

So, the question is... Who's on your side? And the truth is the labels are rarely on the side of the artists. As a matter of fact, usually only when it's in their financial favor. Kobalt revolutionizes publishing payment and you still can't get an accurate royalty statement from a label, if you can get one at all. This will change, but only when Ms. Swift and her ilk point the finger at their bosses.

So, Swift pointed the finger at Spotify and it benefited the Swedish streaming service. Because at that point the masses were still unaware of it.

But everybody knows about Apple Music. Because of streaming history, because of Swift's Spotify kerfuffle, because of the WWDC presentation. And when you piss off Swift's fans...

Well that's just mean.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --