Apple's decision to pay musician royalties for its new streaming service was the right thing to do, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx said Monday.
The tech giant initially wasn't planning to compensate artists, producers or writers during Apple Music's three-month free trial.
On Sunday, Apple changed its mind after megastar Taylor Swift wrote an open letter, calling the decision "shocking" and "disappointing" and saying she was holding back her "1989" album from the service.
"Sometimes with technology, as things are moving, things get lost … I'm going to hope that that's what happened, it wasn't an old record company trick," said Sixx, who calls himself a big fan of Apple. "They did the right thing."
In an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell," Sixx said that musicians had been in closed-door negotiations with Apple for 12 days on the matter, and that Swift's letter was the "final message that [Apple] needed to hear."
Read MoreAnalyst: Why Apple needed to appease Taylor Swift
Earlier in the day, Sixx took to Twitter to thank Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president, for the change of heart.
Sixx said the issue comes down to the fact that artists are asking the audience to purchase their records or buy it on other streaming services after the 90 days, or "hot point," is over.
"That's a great value for Apple, not a great value for the artists, the producers and the record companies," he said.
Plus, the company can afford it.
"When you're a company the size of Apple and you have $200 billion in the bank, simply on your interest alone you are making $10 billion," he said. "So for them to not want to pay the artists on a 90-day streaming service is concerning to artists."