Taylor Swift will present video of star-packed performances from her world tour exclusively on Apple’s subscription music service, starting next Sunday.
In a video message on social networks Sunday, Swift touted her performance in front of 70,o00 people as featuring a panoply of superstar guests, including Wiz Khalifa, Miranda Lambert and John Legend.
The deal with Apple is a latest twist in a cold-then-hot love affair between the gadget giant and Swift. Earlier this year, Swift publicly protested a licensing loophole at the company’s new music service, Apple Music, which would allow Apple to skip royalties to rights holders for any music streamed during a customer’s three-month free trial. After Swift’s outcry, Apple quickly capitulated.
Apple Music has attempted to position itself in the streaming-music market as the service the recording industry should want to be the winner. Apple Music has no ad-supported free tier, like those on Spotify and YouTube. Launched in June, $10-a-month Apple Music has collected 6.5 million paying members, not including people who are in the midst of a three-month free trial when they first sign up.
By comparison, start-up Spotify has more than 20 million paid subscribers.
On a world tour supporting her “1989” album, Swift said her Apple Music video footage would include guests Mick Jagger, Selena Gomez, Fetty Wap, Miranda Lambert, Alanis Morissette, Wiz Khalifa, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Beck and St. Vincent.