What If Taylor Swift Wants Apple To Pay Her Hardware Profit Too?

Now that Taylor Swift has had a taste of what she can make even Apple, one of the most influential companies in the world, bend to her will (whether paying artists during the 3-month trial was something Apple was coming around to do anyway as Eddie Cue suggested, a public charade between Apple and Swift, or something else), it is possible other artists like herself and contend providers begin to see what value and importance they are to Apple and could even one day ask for a percentage of hardware sales? (More at On Apple)

This is not something new. In the past, some have argued that while Apple makes billions of its hardware business, music artists see not a penny of that. While I do think it is a ridiculous argument, it is one that continues to be made or pointed out that hardware companies rake in more than content providers.


If you think about where Apple is getting the money from to pay artists during the free 3-month trial window when Apple is not collecting a penny from users, it's from the billions in hardware profit.

So, how will Apple react to a hypothetical Tumblr letter from Swift or another hot act that is demanding that Apple share some of its profit with content providers? There is precedent for this. Remember the red U2 iPods?

So, it's possible this could happen. Apple may make a few demands of its own. While it's anyone's guess what a Taylor Swift iPhone. Maybe Katy Perry would like a piece of the Apple pie so her own fans can carry around their own Perry-approved iOS gears. Maybe Tim Cook will get Jony Ives to call up Bono for a red and black iPhone 6 Plus.

I'm sure a lot of folks would be into a "By Dr. Dre" version as well.


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