Taylor Swift on her tumblr blog posted details about why she wouldn’t let Apple stream her latest album 1989 on Apple Music. She had many words to praise Apple for “innovation and pushing the right boundaries” however, she clearly termed Apple Music’s policy of non-payment during trial period as “unfair”.

This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.

To Apple, Love Taylor http://t.co/GN9jiRkqlj

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 21, 2015

It didn’t take much time for Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Services, to reply to Taylor’s tweet:

Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

Apple announced the change in policy on Twitter regarding Apple Music payments to artists and record labels during the free-trial period. The company has now decided to pay music owners per stream during the free-trail.

On one hand this move is being praised by everyone in the music industry while on the other, it raises questions about Apple’s ability to negotiate better deals with content providers in the future.

I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015

Now, that Apple will pay every artist during the free-trial we can expect the collection of music available at the launch of Apple Music to improve drastically.

What do you think about Apple’s change of policy? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, in front a small audience, followed by a major announcement of iTunes, which lead to one of the greatest music revolutions in history. iTunes, paired with millions of iPods, iPhones, and iPads, transformed the distribution, consumption, and creation of music around the world, and made material music such as CD’s almost obsolete.

After Steve’s passing in October, the world continues to realize the true impact that he made on the music industry and the transformation of the technological industry that Apple’s products caused. On Friday, The Recording Academy announced they’ll be honoring Steve Jobs with a Special Merit Grammy Award for revolutionizing the music industry with the highly successful iTunes Music Store.

As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad.

The Recording Academy will be holding a special event on Saturday, February 11th in order to honor numerous visionaries with Lifetime Achievement Awards as well as Technical Grammy Awards. The Academy will also be honoring Jobs with a Trustee Award honoring Steve Jobs the following day.

The impact of Apple’s products under Steve Jobs’ guidance can be seen all around the world, and with the influence that his products had on the music and computing industry, there is no doubt that Steve Jobs is the right person to receive the award.

{via TiPb}

We were not convinced of all the Apple TV rumors. We knew it was coming, but very obviously not in the way that the much hyped rumors about Apple TV said it would revolutionize the way we watch our shows and movies.

Instead Apple have kept the Apple TV as a hobby. But made it one quarter of its original size, and stuck an Apple A4 chip inside. Yes, the same chip as you have inside your iPhone 4. So it is, to some degree, now an iOS based device.

Apple also made the new Apple TV black (always a good move), and blindingly simple to use with a cosmetically revamped remote. Most of the simplification is in the user interface on the Apple TV itself where there are some tiny signs of iOS bits and bobs floating around. Most notably little dots with numbers in them to tell you how many episodes of your favourite drama you have available to watch.

There was also a half hearted introduction of some price point changes for shows and movies. And the rumored 99 cents to rent TV shows is now a reality. Even that is not enough to make some take the plunge though and Apple realize that.

Steve was upfront about it too, and said that only Fox and ABC had committed as TV content providers at the moment. But he expected more in future. I think he is right. In many ways the Apple TV is where the original iPod and iTunes were when they first impacted the music industry.

Apple, rightly see this as an important market place to cultivate as it is surely a tech battleground coming to all of our living rooms in the near future.

So Apple also dropped the price of the Apple TV to $99. At that price my first reaction was that the Apple TV is now less money to buy than an AirPort Express was a few years ago. And that entire device’s functionality is just one of the bullet point features of the Apple TV with its new AirPlay capability.

The new Apple TV is said to be available next month. And I might just pick one up at that price. Along with my “iWatch” (iPod Nano!)

Current models of Apple TV will continue to be supported, but will not get the new functionality of this latest Apple TV. Not surprising as they now run very different operating systems. Obviously that is something Apple could relatively easily address. But that is very unlikely given their past form on supporting anything they consider to be a legacy device. And boy don’t devices get old quickly these days!

Are you tempted by the new Apple TV? Or are you already an Apple TV addict? Have your say in the comments…