New Taylor Swift Film Has Glitchy Debut on Apple Music

The rollout of the highly anticipated 1989 World Tour Live has been fraught with issues.

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By Nina Zipkin

Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

Taylor Swift fans hoping to watch the pop singer's concert on Apple Music on Sunday were instead greeted by "Blank Space."

The superstar's concert documentary, The 1989 World Tour Live, was set to go live on Dec. 20, but the premiere of the film, which is exclusive to the Apple Music platform, wasn't as smooth as the tech giant would have liked.

Meant to be available for viewing on iPads, iPhones, iPod touch, Macs and PCs with iTunes and Apple TV, fans were met with crashes, glitchy streaming or the inability to even locate the movie. Since Sunday morning, Apple Music Help twitter account has continued to field customer-service requests from frustrated users as of this story.

Related: Taylor Swift's Latest Trademark Filings Reveal a Shrewd Business Strategy

Ahead of the Apple Music launch in July, Swift took to Tumblr in a post titled, "To Apple, Love Taylor," to take the company to task about how during the streaming service's three-month trial period, the artists, writers and producers in question would not be compensated.

Related: Why Taylor Swift Is Now the Most Powerful Person in Tech

Likely not looking to run afoul of Swift and her sizable music industry clout (especially given how much attention was paid to the singer's decision to remove her music from Spotify in 2014) , Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet and software, tweeted to Swift that the company would change its policy.

Back in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the music streaming service had more than 15 million users, with 6.5 million paying the $9.99 monthly subscriber fee. And in December, with all forgiven between the two giant business entities -- Apple Music was the lone streaming service to offer the massive hit album 1989 to listeners -- Swift announced the streaming deal with Apple on Twitter, on her birthday earlier this month.

Judging by the volume of complaints, it seems like the partnership will work out quite nicely for both parties once the technical difficulties are resolved.

Related: Yes, Believe It: Taylor Swift Is a Customer Retention Expert

Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture.

Nina Zipkin is a staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers leadership, media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

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