Apple Music will be the only streaming service with the rights to Taylor Swift's 1989

(Image credit: Ross Gilmore/Getty Images for TAS)

last updated 25 June 2015

Taylor Swift made headlines this week with a single Tumblr post calling out Apple Music's free three-month user trial, which would not pay artists royalties during that time. In less than 24 hours, Apple exec Eddy Cue announced on Twitter that Apple Music would in fact pay its artists even while customers are enjoying the streaming service for free.

Given Swift's well-documented anti-streaming stance, which began with her removing her albums from Spotify last November, speculation arose that Apple's blink-and-you-missed-it change of heart wasn't so much motivated by the desire to do the right thing, but instead by the hope that Swift would bless Apple Music with the rights to her record-breaking album 1989. Swift didn't help that rumor with a series of tweets Thursday:

Swift discounted the idea that Apple has the exclusive rights to her music, instead saying only that Apple's model represents the first time streaming her work "felt right." But with the rapid-fire timing of events, it's hard to imagine Apple didn't see the opportunity to both "do the right thing" and be the only streaming service to offer Swift's smash record.