Beggars Group, the English record company that owns independent labels such as 4AD, XL, Rough Trade, Matador and Young Turks, has released a statement criticising Apple Music's proposed policy of not paying rights owners for the service's first three months.
The statement says that "whilst we understand the logic of their proposal and their aim to introduce a subscription-only service, we struggle to see why rights owners and artists should bear this aspect of Apple's customer acquisition costs."
The group, whose artists include Jack White, Adele and Vampire Weekend, went on to express a "fear that the free trial aspect, far from moving the industry away from freemium services – a model we support – is only resulting in taking the 'mium' out of freemium."
The group finished by saying that it was worried about disparity in the treatment of major and independent labels, but expressed hope that it would reach an agreement so that it could "fully support this potentially exciting new service in the coming days."
