Apple Music has just announced the royalty rates for artists during the three-month free trial subscription from June 30. According to the company, it will reimburse 0.2 cents for each stream during this period. According to The New York Times, this rate is comparable to what Spotify pays artists for its free tier.

Quoting a report in NYT, IB Times, however, points out that the main difference between Apple Music's free trial period payment and Spotify's free tier is that the latter's free period includes ads as well as never ends, while there will be no ads during the three months trial period of Apple Music. Instead, Apple Music users would be required to start paying to continue accessing the service after the initial three months.

According to sources, NYT reports that sources told them that this figure does not include songwriting payouts, which are said to be under negotiations. However, both rates will be applicable to all labels, instead of being individually negotiated for each label.

On Wednesday, there were reports that Apple has signed up more than 20,000 indie labels by entering into an agreement with label representative Merlin. In addition, Apple has struck deals with Beggars Group and PIAS. These agreements are partially owing to the concessions Apple has offered by Apple on free trial period payouts.

Soon after striking the deal with Apple, Merlin CEO Charles Caldas wrote a letter to all the members of the group saying, "I am pleased to say that Apple has made a decision to pay for all usage of Apple Music under the free trials on a per-play basis, as well as to modify a number of other terms that members had been communicating directly with Apple about. With these changes, we are happy to support the deal."

For the uninitiated, Apple Music will launch June 30 and the subscription cost will be $9.99 per month for an individual plan, or $14.99 per month for a family plan. As many as six people can share a family plan via Apple's Family Sharing service.