headfull0wine

This is kind of like the people who say: ”Who would buy a $10,000 carbon bike when it doesn’t even come with pedals?”
They just don’t get it. 

If I were a student, I would want 2 tiers of security. I’d be ok with express mode to open doors and such, but I would want biometrics for anything financial.  No one should be able to drain my stored balance with just the phone. 

Surely that hat could be coded in?  

Simple math.
Apple is getting portrayed favourably as a friend to the arts by not appealing the increase. 

Increased Apple hardware sales. 
+
Increased Apple Music subscriptions
=
Apple makes more money than the difference in royalties. 

I assume they also collect data on purchases to better figure out how to target customers (internal only, of course, not to use like FB and Google for sale).

My understanding is Apple can’t “see” any of the transaction. Everything is tokenized. This ensures the security of the service, which allows the transaction to be considered a “card present” transaction, which carries a lower cost than a “card not present” transaction. 

They make this sound new and revolutionary, but how is this different than paying with something like my Starbucks app???  

At least I have a choice  with Starbucks.  I can use Apple Pay if I just want to run it through my credit card, or I can use their app if I want to pay with a gift card someone gave me. With the app I earn points and get rewards, but I am aware they are tracking/profiling me. With Apple Pay I am anonymous. My choice.