Apple Urging Music Labels to Stop Licensing Free Songs on Spotify and YouTube

[jonhaxor]

Apple's much-rumored Beats streaming service would naturally be a more competitive alternative over two of its biggest rivals in Spotify and YouTube if it successfully convinces music labels to force streaming services to ditch their freemium tiers. Apple's service is expected to have lots of exclusive content, and only about one-quarter of Spotify's 60 million customers have paid subscriptions.

Apple faces a similar probe from the European Commission over concerns that it's persuading labels to abandon free, ad-supported services such as Spotify in Europe as well. Apple's own Beats streaming service will reportedly not offer a free tier, requiring customers to pay a recurring fee of around $9.99 per month, similar to paid tiers offered by Spotify, Rdio and Google Play Music.

Beets .. what a horrible name .. this sounds like the Borscht idea ever

 

[Renzatic]

Beets .. what a horrible name .. this sounds like the Borscht idea ever

 

[youradhere4222]

Oh no, forcing people to pay for music again.. How awful of

Apple doesn't really care about the amount you're paying for music, they just want to be sure they're taking a 40% cut of it.

 

[ibuyufo]

Do you guys remember that 1984 commercial Apple created about the mac? Now they turned into big brother and dictating what you can and can't have.

 

[gnasher729]

Yes it was & they got caught.

It's mind boggling you're even trying to defend their actions.

I'm not defending Amazon in any way.

And I know that where I live, audiobooks from Amazon are excessively expensive, and much more reasonably priced on iTunes.

 

[JoEw]

Apple doesn't really care about the amount you're paying for music, they just want to be sure they're taking a 40% cut of it.

And? I don't care if they want a cut, I just think everyone should pay for music in some way.. the payout per play for music is insanely awful with Spotify

I pay for Spotify premium, and would gladly cancel, if I could use the native music app and Apple had streaming rights to almost the entire catalog.

I do think music shouldn't be entirely free, it costs real money to make and promote.

 

[winston1236]

The problem with all these race to the bottom pricing schemes is that it actually sets a perception in the mind of consumers that there is less value in the product. Young consumers have no idea how much effort and actual money goes into creating content (music, movies, TV, videos and video games) and all they see is that it costs them less than breath mints.

It's what happens when everybody wants to do something, the people doing get paid less and less.

 

[uknowimright]

i call bs on this report. this is not something apple will ever do. they will compete with a superior product and service as they always do. if spotify is free or not it won't help them apple will win this war.

hope they pay you well, brave internet warrior

 

[MacintoshMan]

The streaming service is supposed to be integrated into iTunes music player right? I can't see my self having two separate apps.

Also, I hope to god they don't make it an either Match, or Stream option. That would kill me.

 

[youradhere4222]

And? I don't care if they want a cut, I just think everyone should pay for music in some way.. the payout per play for music is insanely awful with Spotify

I pay for Spotify premium, and would gladly cancel, if I could use the native music app and Apple had streaming rights to almost the entire catalog.

I do think music shouldn't be entirely free, it costs real money to make and promote.

Most of the money artists make comes from live performances, not music sales, and it's been that way for a while. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people like Taylor Swift who earn $60+ million a year off their music and complain that they're not being compensated well enough by Spotify. She's making money primarily from her concerts and endorsements. If anything, easy access to her music is what makes those other ventures so lucrative.

 

[pdaholic]

That's okay, you lost all credibility when you resulted to insults. Bye.

Did you actually think anyone on this site could make an argument without hurling insults?!?

Maybe you really are delusional

 

[kupkakez]

Call me new fashioned, but I rather listen to unlimited music for half the price of an album with spotlight student pricing per month. $60 a year.

Ditto. I have not purchased music in years. I've happily paid my $10 to Spotify for a couple of years now.

Why buy it when I can get it on Spotify and only pay $10 and have unlimited music? *

*I am not a musical hipster so none of that "well not everything isn't on spotify stuff" I listen to mainstream music you'd hear on the radio.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Yeah, I can say the same thing about Apple. So you don't want the labels with all the power, you want Apple with all the power?

We all know business is cut-throat and Apple, if they could, like every company out there, would monopolize their industry(ies). Just because I like Apple products doesn't mean I want them to control the world, no more than Google, Amazon or Microsoft should.

This is beneath Apple. Provide the best product/service, and they will buy. Don't try to squash competition like that. Either go buy Spotify or stop with these tactics.

Apple doesn't have all the power. They have a fraction of the power which is at best maybe 25% for mobile devices and 5% for traditional computers.

 

[Darrin Bell]

Call me old fashioned, but I would rather just own my music.

I used to say exactly the same thing. Until I got tired of half my $2000+ music collection and stopped listening to it. I wish I could sell "Blurred Lines" back to Apple and get my 99 cents back.

 

[HenryDJP]

Did you actually think anyone on this site could make an argument without hurling insults?!?

Maybe you really are delusional

Haha, 100% agreed.

 

[bawbac]

Most of the money artists make comes from live performances, not music sales, and it's been that way for a while.

Why would that be?
Oh yeah, because people believe that music should be free and it's not stealing.

Can't wait for the day when we can all can steal products from each other with no repercussions.

I wrote a song and you like it?
I just want a buck.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people like Taylor Swift who earn $60+ million a year off their music and complain that they're not being compensated well enough by Spotify.

Who cares how much someone makes.
No one is flinching for Apple making so much money.
Why??? because they're a corporation?

She/they made the product. They want to control it.
Is there a Problem?
Apple does it. Why can she?

If anything, easy access to her music is what makes those other ventures so lucrative.

People stealing your product or getting some material for free may help concert ticket sales but in my experience, most music fans buy their products. You can pick out the music thieves easily because they have an entitlement aura emitting from their presence.

 

[Glideslope]

#2

Tim's second screwup after the AW.

 

[nebo1ss]

This sounds like a rerun of the price fixing on books. They got burned with that and will get burned with this as well if it is true.

 

[MacLawyer]

Here we go again

When will Apple ever learn? Another Anti-trust suit coming soon.

 

[DerekAndonian]

I'm a little disappointed in this forum right now- I made it to the fourth page of comments on this story and didn't see the word "gate" once.

 

[mickhyperion]

Pretty much exclusively stupid comments here.

Some facts:

Ad-based music offerings devalue music, are not sustainable. Tying an entire industry to the whims of the internet advertising market isn't doing anyone a favor.

Apple has paid more to labels/artists in the last quarter than the entire subscription based industry life to date.

Subscription based music offerings have resulted in massively lower music sales without the revenue to replace what was lost.

Not facts, but true:

Ad-based services suck. Junked up interfaces, click here for pepsi, etc. No one wants that crap. The only people who use subscription music services and don't pay are those who can't pay - trying to shake a few cents out of that audience is not a thing Apple does.

Apple appears to be attempting to reshape the streaming market into one where a premium, exclusively subscription-based offering can exist. I don't see how this is a bad thing, seeing as we all like high quality things here.

Make a free Spotify account, login to Spotify Desktop with no subscription and tell me that is a high quality service...

Excellent points.

Artists and songwriters are making NOTHING from ad-based streaming services. Those people would like to get paid for their work. The less money there is to be made, the fewer artists and songwriters there will be and popular music will continue to rapidly devolve.

 

[JoEw]

Most of the money artists make comes from live performances, not music sales, and it's been that way for a while. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people like Taylor Swift who earn $60+ million a year off their music and complain that they're not being compensated well enough by Spotify. She's making money primarily from her concerts and endorsements. If anything, easy access to her music is what makes those other ventures so lucrative.

But you are looking at the most famous artists, I am talking about the little guys, those ones you discover on Pandora radio stations. They need compensation, and that is how it's been for awhile the they don't have endorsements or cross country tours.

 

[mejsric]

May is a boring month for Apple.. Lets.. create a rumors to earn money.

c,$$)

 

[AppleScruff1]

Music labels need to have less power, not more.

I guess it's in the consumers best interest for Apple to have all the power.

 

[macUser2007]

Music labels need to have less power, not more.

And allowing Apple to dictate contract terms for competitors is better?! Really?!

Beats is one of the worst streaming service currently. It has a good library, which it inherited from MOG (which Beats bought for $15 million months before Apple bought Beats for $3 billion), but Beats ruined the service and the UI.

I hope the EU files for violations against Apple, as it did for Apple's rigging the ebook market, because the US regulatory authorities are too beholden to and corrupted by large monopolies to object.

Competition is a good thing for consumers, even if monopolies hate it.