Thursday, July 16, 2015

When a Liberal Company Cheats a Little Guy or Gal

From the realm of pop music comes a morality tale
which says a lot about the values of liberals in big
business. Pop sensation Taylor Swift won a big battle
with Apple Music over whether she (and ultimately
rising artists) will be paid by the division of the
computer/software company that gave us the iMac
the iPad, and the iPhone, for music they recorded for
Apple's new streaming service which they are letting
people sample with a free trial period. Problem was,
for Swift and some other artists, Apple Music wanted
to mitigate the costs of this by not paying Swift and
the rest who created the music during the free trial
time.

Well, this didn't sit well with Swift. Not being paid
for her music which a company with a market
capitalization of $729 billion was, in her mind, both
an insult and a ripoff. She wrote an open letter to Apple
on Tumblr, one of the many social media sties online,
saying that she "finds it to be shocking, disappointing,
and completely unlike this historically progressive and
generous company." Please note, Apple is progressive
not only in terms of its renown innovation in communi-
cation technology but in its politics; Steve Jobs, the late
founder of Apple, supported President Obama with both
endorsement and campaign contributions. The firm still
supports left-wing candidates and causes. And here
Apple was trying to stiff musicians and singers, most
of them just on the way up, at least one having reached
prominence --- Taylor Swift.

Swift called for Apple to change its policy, stating "We
don't ask you for free iPhones. Please don't ask us to provide
you with our music for no compensation." A valid point.
She further threatened to withhold from Apple Muisc her
chart-storming album "1989" --- no idle threat, for she
earlier did similar by withholding her entire catalog of
songs from Spotify, another music-streaming service,
also over compensation disagreements. Apple quickly
turned around, announcing that they would after all pay
Swift, and the other affected artists, for the music used
in the free trial period for the new streaming service.

A classic case of a "little gal" standing up to a huge,
money-laden corporation taking unfair advantage,
and winning. And the corporation controlled by
liberals, the self-proclaimed champions of said
"little gals and guys". A bit like the film "Norma
Rae", with a "little gal" winning a great battle
against a big employer in which many others like
her benefit. And this film was quite popular with
the left-of-center set!

Irony sure is delicious, isn't it?


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