News - 24/06/2015

Apple Music gets a green light from Merlin thanks to change of heart over free trial period

Apple Music gets a green light from Merlin thanks to change of heart over free trial period

Apple Music may have just consolidated its launch plans by getting a green light from Merlin, the global digital rights agency representing over 20,000 members including some of the biggest independent labels in the world. 

Billboard reports that Charles Caldas, in an email sent to Merlin members, stated that Apple’s change of heart over the payment of royalties during the three-month free trial period of the service means that the agency is now happy to support the deal. 

Apple was asking for the three-month trial period to be royalty free which had spurred harsh criticism from the independent sector since it could have deprived artists from a meaningful source of revenue. 

It also made little sense for artists to readily agree to giving their music away for free to Apple for three months purely to enable the company to quickly gain market share in the space, when Apple has tens of billions of dollars in the bank and - as Taylor Swift put it - is not about to give away free iPhones anytime soon. 

Apple already has deals with the three majors and the support of Merlin means that it could launch a respectable streaming service without major holes in the catalogue. 

However, Merlin in this case is not penning a direct deal with Apple since most of its members already have direct deals with the company. These deals would need to be individually amended before June 30th in order for each label’s catalog to be available at launch. With just less than a week to go, Apple Music’s legal team is not going to get a great deal of sleep.

 

(Andrea Leonelli)

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