Beggars Can Be Choosers

Beggars Group supremo Martin Mills, whose labels include XL, Matador, Rough Trade and 4AD confirmed recently that the Group hasn’t currently licensed their catalogue to Apple Music, due to launch in a fortnight.

In a memo sent to the label group’s partners this week, he intimated his reluctance to license in relation to Apple’s refusal to pay independent labels royalties for the duration of the three month free trial of the new Apple Music streaming platform.

Mills‘ memo states: “In many ways the deal structure is very progressive, but unfortunately it was created without reference to us, or as far as we know any independents, and as such unsurprisingly presents problems for us, and for our coming artist releases”.

“We are naturally very concerned – especially for artists releasing new albums in the next three months – that all streaming on the new service will be unremunerated until the end of September”.

It continues, pertinently pointing out: “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”.

To read more of the memo go to MBW.