Taylor Swift Didn’t Have Label’s Permission Before Blasting Apple Music

It turns out Taylor Swift was flying solo when she voiced her opposition to Apple Music's initial policy of not paying out royalties during their three-month trial period. (The company later reversed their decision, largely, it appeared, in the face of Swift's criticism.)

Scott Borchetta, the boss at Swift's label, Big Machine, told attendees at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference that while the label was unaware Swift was going to go off book, she was on the same page as her employers.

"The conversation started with myself and the executives of Apple, just as a label group conversation of 'I can’t support this: you need to pay us from the first stream'," Borchetta said during his on-stage interview at the conference.

"And those conversations were leading up to the weekend where Taylor posted the blog. She and I hadn’t spoken that week, so she literally texted me, she said 'Don’t be mad' with the link ... I said ‘you don’t have any idea how good your timing is right now..."

On her blog, Swift wrote, "I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this… We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation."

Borchetta says he thinks Swift's missive provided the tipping point for Apple to change its mind. "Everyone was fighting that fight. There was a huge fight going on behind the scenes. I think that Taylor pushed it over the edge," he said.