Apple has secured crucial licensing deals with two major music groups

Riding on the back of its repaired reputation, Apple has secured crucial licensing deals with two major music groups, less than a week before Apple Music is expected to launch. Some serious damage was done to the company’s image after Taylor Swift called it out for its crappy policy of not paying artists during Apple Music’s free trial. When the company did a U-turn and decided to start paying artists during the free trial, this damage was completely reversed, and now Apple’s image is even better than it was before. 

In the wake of Taylor Swift convincing Apple to dole out royalty payments during Apple Music’s three-month trial period, Apple has been quick to leverage the accompanying good will and sign crucial deals with two massive music rights organizations, Beggars Group and Merlin Network. According to Billboard, Merlin alone represents over 20,000 labels and distributors across the globe. Together, both groups oversee members who own the musical rights to a vast number of big name artists, including Adele, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Neko Case, The Strokes, Social Distortion, The National, Tom Waits, Spoon, Grizzly Bear, DJ Khaled, and Martin Solveig & Dragonette. Billboard managed to get its hands on a letter that Merlin CEO Charles Caldas wrote to its members. It reads in part: “I am pleased to say that Apple has made a decision to pay for all usage of Apple Music under the free trials on a per-play basis, as well as to modify a number of other terms that members had been communicating directly with Apple about. With these changes, we are happy to support the deal.”