“You know what the Spotify rate is,” Borchetta said. “Beat it.” What had seemed like a simple solution threatened to upend Apple Music’s finances by creating unaccounted-for costs. The company would need to dig into its coffers—the $200 billion it had on hand—to cover the unplanned payments to artists. Iovine and Cue conferred with Cook and got his approval to cut a deal. If they didn’t surrender, they would risk Swift’s letter emboldening other artists and triggering a mutiny against the service.
