A musician defines leadership and takes a bite out of Apple
Apple Inc. recently announced plans to step into the market for streaming audio. To do it, the company negotiated countless agreements with musicians and studios. How someone can take charge of so many complex negotiations with musicians and studio executives begs the question, what is leadership in a negotiation? The answer came this week, but not from Apple executives.
Instead, it was pop superstar Taylor Swift’s negotiating tactics that convinced the tech giant to make an unprecedented public concession in advance of the upcoming release of Apple Music.
Apple Music completes a long evolution for a company that has been at the forefront of digital music since it released the revolutionary iPod in 2001. The subscription service Apple Music app will synch streaming music and radio to a host of programs and devices marketed by the $750 billion Palo Alto company. Buried in the fine print, however, Apple decided not to pay musicians for music streamed during the first three months after the debut.
