As many independent artists likely know, Apple announced the launch of its upcoming streaming service, Apple Music, at this years WWDC Conference. We’ve made sure to offer our Artists and prospective Artists the chance to read up about Apple Music on our robust Knowledge Base in the meantime, but there were still lingering questions from all corners of the music world about Apple Music’s 3-month trial period.
We’re pleased to share with you, TuneCore Artists, that as of yesterday, Monday, June 22nd, Apple has announced that they will pay royalties to all artists during the initial 3-month trial of Apple Music! This is great news if you’ve already opted in to Apple’s new streaming service, and great news if you haven’t yet! (You’ll still have the opportunity to submit your releases to Apple Music when it has launched).
If you haven’t already, you can go ahead and claim your Apple Music Artist Profile now! This will help you get ready for the June 30 launch of Apple Music and its new Connect feature that lets you add an artist profile and share remixes, videos, demos, sound bytes and more with your fans.
In case you missed it, initially Apple announced that streaming royalties for the first three months of Apple Music (June 30-Oct 1) would not be paid, as no listeners would be paying for the service yet whatsoever. This generated chatter among international indie label groups all the way up to Taylor Swift, who penned an open letter to Apple on behalf of all the hardworking indies out there.
Our mission will always be to provide you with the best opportunities to get your music heard and to make money doing what you love. This newly announced decision by Apple will help you achieve your goals. Read more about getting your releases in Apple Music here.
Tags: apple music distribution music business royalties streaming Taylor Swift