Taylor Swift pulls hit album 1989 from Apple music

Taylor Swift has withdrawn her hit album 1989 from Apple's new music streaming service, after criticising the company for "unfair treatment."

In an open letter to Apple, the 25-year-old criticised the US firm's plans not to pay royalties during a three-month free trial period for the service, explaining "it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing

In an impassioned blog post on Tumblr titled 'To Apple, Love Taylor,' she wrote: "I'm not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months."

"We don't ask you for free iPhones. Please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation. This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows."

She explained that she was speaking on behalf of young new artists trying to break into the music industry, who would be out of pocket as result of the free subscription period.

"This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt.

"This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field ... but will not get paid for a quarter of a year's worth of plays on his or her songs."

"I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company," she said, describing Apple as one of her "best partners in selling music".

Swift added: "These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much."

However, she added it was not too late for Apple to "change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this".

She further suggested she would reinstate her album on the service if the company were to change its mind about the policy.

Apple Music plans to offer subscribers a large catalogue of songs for a subscription fee of $10 a month, when its streaming service launches at the end of the month.

The rest of Swift's back catalogue will remain available on Apple Music when it launches on 30 June.

It's not the first time the outspoken pop star has spoken against streaming music. The Shake it Off singer pulled her entire music catalogue from Spotify last November, saying music streaming had "shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically."

The bold move paid off as 1989 became the biggest debut of 2014, selling more than 4.9 million albums in the US.

Taylor Swift is due to start the UK leg of her world tour on 23 June

Representatives for Apple have not commented.