Apple Music wins exclusive video deal with Taylor Swift

(Reuters) – Pop star Taylor Swift’s “1989 World Tour Live” concert video will be available exclusively on Apple Inc’s music streaming service, Apple Music, starting Dec. 20, Apple said on the service’s Twitter account on Sunday.

Swift, who celebrated her 26th birthday on Sunday, tweeted a trailer for the concert video and said: “Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. I have a little surprise for you.” The trailer’s description listed Jonas Akerlund as the video’s director.

The singer also tweeted that an interview discussing the video would be broadcast at 9 a.m. PST (1700 GMT) on Monday on Beats 1, Apple’s radio station. Apple officials were not immediately available for comment.

Apple introduced Apple Music in June. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in October the music streaming service had netted more than 6.5 million paid users, and that an additional 8.5 million people were participating in a free trial.

Swift said in June she would put her hit album “1989” on Apple Music, days after the tech giant bowed to pressure from Swift and some independent music groups and labels and agreed to pay artists during a free trial of its music service.

Swift’s decision came after she pulled her entire catalog of music from online streaming platform Spotify in November 2014 and refused to offer “1989” on streaming services, saying the business had shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Peter Cooney)