MÖTLEY CRÜE's NIKKI SIXX Says APPLE MUSIC 'Did The Right Thing' By Deciding To Pay Artists During Free Trial

MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx brought his knowledge of, and experience with, music streaming to major media outlets this week. Associated Press and CNBC's "Closing Bell" interviewed Sixx for major pieces on Apple's change of mind on its decision not to pay musicians any royalties during its three-month free trial period of Apple Music.

Apple Music announced earlier this week that it will change its plan and pay royalties to artists even during its three-month free trial for users, following Taylor Swift's public complaint about the policy. She had planned to withhold her hit album "1989" from the service in protest.

"It does look a little bit like Taylor put a post up and just turned Apple around in one Tumblr post; it's not quite that easy," Sixx told the Associated Press. "But we can't take away from the fact that one of the largest stars did put themselves out there publicly. They were already hearing that lots of labels and artists were going to pull, but that was the tipping point. I think it was perfect... It's a win-win-win."

But even though more and more independent labels are signing their contracts with Apple Music after several trade groups endorsed a revised deal, Sixx sounded a more cautionary note, explaining: "Don't jump up and down and wave the flag quite yet; we got work to do but we're moving in a better direction than a lot of people say. A lot of people are like, 'This music industry's dead. There's no use being in a band anymore or an artist. You're never going to make any money.' It's not true."

Calling in to CNBC's "Closing Bell", Sixx, who calls himself a big fan of Apple, said: "Sometimes with technology, as things are moving, things get lost … I'm gonna hope that that's what happened; it wasn't an old record company trick. They did the right thing."

He went on to say: "We have been in negotiations for about 12 days behind closed doors, trying to get this thing right… They don't work for free, you don't work for free, I don't work for free… I think it's just about keeping the ecosystem friendly and fair."

He added: "When you're a company the size of Apple and you have $200 billion in the bank, simply on your interest alone you are making $10 billion. So for them to not want to pay the artists on a 90-day streaming service is concerning to artists."

Apple Music will officially launch June 30, with every potential customer receiving a three-month trail period before paying $9.99 monthly.