Apple to pay 0.2 cents per song during Apple Music free trial

Apple will be paying royalties of 0.2 cents for each song that is streamed from Apple Music during the service’s three-month trial period, The New York Times reports. While the company had originally not planned to compensate artists during the free trial period for its new streaming music service, it reversed course earlier this week following an open letter from Taylor Swift castigating the company for its unwillingness to support struggling independent artists, although the terms of any compensation were not immediately revealed. As a result, however, indie label Beggars Group and digital rights organization Merlin came to terms with Apple, with the latter recommending its member labels accept Apple’s new deal. The 0.2-cent-per-song rate is said by music executives to be “roughly comparable” to what other services such as Spotify pay for streamed songs from their free, ad-supported tiers, however, it does not include a smaller payment to music publishers for “songwriting rights” which Apple is reportedly still negotiating with publishers over.