Players gonna play: Apple Music scores another exclusive from Taylor Swift
Apple and Taylor Swift are once again making headline news together. But this time, there’s no bad blood between the two parties at all.
As she has announced today, her 26th birthday, the pop superstar will be releasing a live concert special on Sunday, Dec. 20., exclusively on Apple Music. The special will be free to stream for users of Apple’s music streaming service (including those who are on the free three-month trial as well as paying subscribers), but it won’t be available elsewhere (not even on iTunes), at least initially.
Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. I have a little surprise for you.
#1989WorldTourLIVE @applemusic
https://t.co/actZbWBt4R
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 13, 2015
The special, titled “The 1989 World Tour Live,” is a documentary film of Swift’s world tour for her latest album, “1989” (named after her birth year). In particular, according to New York Post, it features Swift’s Nov. 28 performance in front of 76,000 fans at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia. As noted on the special’s teaser video, the star-studded concert includes appearances by Mick Jagger, Selena Gomez, Miranda Lambert, Alanis Morissette, Wiz Khalifa, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, and more.
Tune in to Beats 1 Radio on Apple Music tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST to listen to Swift’s interview with DJ Zane Lowe about the upcoming special and the artist’s exclusive deal for it with Apple Music.
Met up with @ZaneLowe to talk about #1989WorldTourLIVE- airs tomorrow at 9am PST on @Beats1
https://t.co/rzGwjF4mYn pic.twitter.com/gaF0k62cqt
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 13, 2015
Apple Music is currently the only platform that streams “1989,” which has sold more than 5 million copies since its release in October last year and is in contention for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
But the run-up to its being so was not without incident. A few days before the launch of Apple Music in late June, Swift (in)famously published an open letter on her official Tumblr blog and took Apple to task over its decision to not pay royalties during the trial period for the streaming service. Apple then quickly changed course, and Swift allowed Apple Music to stream “1989” as well as her previous albums, which she had refused to make available on platforms that offer free, ad-supported streaming, most notably Spotify.
As for “The 1989 World Tour Live,” it’s just the latest exclusive to be scored by Apple as it works to make its music services stand out in an increasingly competitive crowd. The company’s recent history of music-industry exclusives began a couple of years ago, when Beyoncé released her self-titled album exclusively on iTunes.
