[crusso]

I would give the edge to this being a PR ploy, but then again, I'm sure that Apple had different financial models on the table when they were building this product.

They might have been going with the "shared risk" model of free up front play, but bigger payouts to the artists on the subscriptions - but still had their "Apple takes the risk" on the front end, then payouts are smaller on the back end.

Then when artists grumbled about the shared risk model, they kicked in with the alternative model.