Weekly round-up

In the US reaction to the Charlston church massacre is impacting on sales of Confederate flag merchandise. The image of the flag has become tainted by association with race hatred. Companies including Walmart, Sears, Amazon, Google and eBay are removing all products and images from their stores and websites. In the music industry a Tumblr post by Taylor Swift has persuaded Apple to rethink the business model for its new Apple Music streaming service. In the original proposal Apple were not going pay musicians and songwriters royalties for music streamed during the free 3 month introductory service. In response to criticism from independent labels and artists such as Swift, Apple has now agreed to pay royalties due during the free trial as well as those generated via the full subscription service.