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Florence Welch and Taylor Swift amongst artists targeted by Apple for exclusives
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 14 April 2015
So, Apple has asked over a dozen artists – including both Florence and her Machine – to sign up to exclusivity deals around the launch of the all-new Beats-infused iTunes service, that is expected to both wow and under-whelm (depending who you talk too) music fans worldwide this summer.
According to Bloomberg, Apple has been courting various artists for access to exclusive content, preferably exclusive digital rights to new albums for a set time period.
As noted in this month’s CMU Trends Report, Apple’s advantage over – say – some fly-by-night streaming set-up run by a cheeky rap boy and his missus – is that it can do combined download/stream exclusivity deals, which are less demanding on fans, who can either sign up to iBeats to stream, or pay to download the new record while continuing to stream elsewhere.
It’s thought that Taylor Swift has also been approached by the Apple monolith, perhaps to secure the exclusive rights to her moaning on and on about freemium and her “art”. I’d pay for that. Taylor Swift’s Daily Moan. Only on iTunes.
Speculation continues to grow, of course, as to what the long-awaited all new iTunes will look like. It’ll presumably combine the download store, the Beats Music streaming service and the existing iTunes personalised radio set up, meaning a la carte, subscription and ad-funded options will all be available. Though will Apple really be able to exploit its continued dominance in the flagging download market to catch up in the rapidly expanding streaming sector, where it is somewhat late to the party, even with its Beats Music acquisition.
Yesterday Music Ally reported that in the US Apple is now paying music journalists to write punchy copy to sit atop each of the many, many, many playlists that will be offered by the new look iTunes. Meanwhile the tech giant continues to seek an Editorial Producer in London. Which points to the not-especially-surprising conclusion that curation and original editorial will be key to the new iBeats, though most streaming services are now dabbling in this space, so it’ll be interesting to see whether original words aplenty really make any difference.
