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At its one year anniversary in June, Apple Music boasted more than 15 million subscribers, and should it continue its rapid growth rate, the service could eventually eclipse Spotify as the most popular streaming service. Spotify continues to have approximately twice as many subscribers but the music service continues to struggle because it has yet to become profitable.

Just wondering if Apple Music as a stand alone business also would 'struggling'

How much of the Apple Music bill is actually being paid by Apple? Could Apple Music survive without the financial and technical support from Apple?
 
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it's a nice attention grabbing headline (Spotify is punishing artists!), but really, the only musicians able to sign these exclusive deals are super well known already. I'm not going to loose sleep over Kanye and Taylor not getting on a featured Spotify playlist.
 
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Not sure I understand the logic here...if I am spotify, and let's say a REALLY popular artist inks an exclusive deal with Apple. (example: Taylor Swift). When Spotify users attempt to find Taylor Swift music, it will be buried deep, causing a couple downstream effects:

1. Spotify Users are unhappy because they can't find the music of popular artists they want to listen to, thus causing increased dissatisfaction with their users. If they find out Apple has Taylor Swift front and center and easy to find, it seems logical they may be willing to switch.
2. Popular artists as a result will find their music is not performing as well on Spotify, potentially giving them cause to move away from that platform.

I could be totally off here, but it sounds like a bully tactic that would actually hurt Spotify by upsetting their users...
 
How are these exclusives not the subject of investigation by the authorities - especially in Europe?

Last time I checked, concocting a monopoly out of a naturally competitive market was illegal in the UK. :rolleyes:

Because here in the Uk we tend to let Apple get away with a lot :D also after we voted to leave the EU we just don't care :)
 
As Apple learned the hard way, going thermonuclear is not good business.

Ironically... one of the companies in this war, Spotify, doesn't know how to run a business.

Is it "good business" to accept BILLIONS in investment money with no hope of becoming profitable?

Spotify needs to fix that before they can even think about "punishing" the same artists who are supposed to be making them money.

What happens if a bunch of artists get pissed off and leave Spotify? Who will get hurt more?

Artists don't necessarily need Spotify.

But Spotify absolutely needs the artists.

It sounds like Spotify is playing with fire here.
 
Biting the hand (artists) that feeds you (UMG) simply because they're (artists) looking out for themselves is going to come back on UMG in the end. I predict that there will be an eventual migration of artists away from UMG labels over time if this behavior keeps up.

Not to mention Apple, who provides Spotify with a very popular vehicle for delivering their content (iOS).

[edit] Misread the original post. I thought the OP was talking about Spotify, not UMG.
 
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ok, apparently exclusives are a big thing.
i wish spotify focused more on bringing advanced, futuristic features to its software, like the ability to rate your songs.
Hard for them to bring updates when your rival won't approve your app. There hasn't been an update to it since May.
 
I have nothing against Spotify specifically and I’m not rich, but I welcome the crumbling of devaluing creative property to near zero by offering it all on demand for free. This is just the start. There are too many self-righteous people thinking they are owed everything digital for free.
 
Terrible business move. Bigger artists who don't need spotifys chump change will just stick it back to them by leaving.

With the introduction of Apple Music as a competitor to Spotify, it seems artists have gotten a little bit of power back.
 
In one corner, you have a relatively small company who's entire business is streaming music, loved by many, preferred by many and, until Apple decided to become a competitor, considered by even the biggest Apple fans as one of the very best at what they do.

In the other corner you have a gigantic corporation who has decided to add steaming music as yet another source of revenue to it's ever-growing empire.

The "David" in this particular tale is trying to survive against long odds (Goliath has unlimited financial resources, Goliath's competing solution is default on every iDevice sold, woven into the fundamental music playing app that everyone uses (probably first) when they first acquire an iDevice, etc). The "Goliath" is flexing it's massive muscles and wealth to pressure "David" into submission, killing a free service preferred by millions of our fellow consumers, etc. to, presumably, prop up the appeal of it's own music subscription service.

At another time, Apple played David and Wintel was Goliath. Of course we sided with the underdog in THAT situation. Are we so right... so certain that the David in THIS situation is the "villain" and Goliath is so very right? Sure, the details of this story paints this David in a bad light but think about why they are "punishing" artists. What is the driver of such "punishment"? Why would they take such an action that they know can be PR spun so obviously negative?

Because they ARE evil or stupid? Else, what else is in play here to motivate such action?
 
Just wondering if Apple Music as a stand alone business also would 'struggling'

How much of the Apple Music bill is actually being paid by Apple? Could Apple Music survive without the financial and technical support from Apple?

you also have to include that Apple Music is the default service on all iPhones. if you want a 3rd party one, you have to go find it and subscribe to it elsewhere usually.

Apple music, you just turn your phone on, there it is. installed. And you can easily subscribe through the App Store.

this will help increase usership a lot faster than a non-native 3rd party option. So how mcuh of the 15 million subscribers are subscribed because they didn't know there were even options and just used the default one already installed.
 
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How are these exclusives not the subject of investigation by the authorities - especially in Europe?

Last time I checked, concocting a monopoly out of a naturally competitive market was illegal in the UK. :rolleyes:
It's not though. Clothing brands can choose to only sell at Target, for example. That's also an "exclusive." People can still have plenty of choice to go to target or get different clothes elsewhere.

If anything, exclusives should help drive competition between competing services. Each making their service better/cheaper to lure customers. At least in theory. Exclusives are part of a free market.
 
I can't understand the logic/rationale behind this. It's like saying to an old friend that if they won't hang out with you right now you don't want to be friends anymore... how petty. Apple's exclusives are ********, yes but I can't imagine that competing by pulling this type of asshattery is going to generate the results Spotify needs to stay in this game... talk about cutting off the nose to spite the face.
 
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Because here in the Uk we tend to let Apple get away with a lot :D also after we voted to leave the EU we just don't care :)

But you will care when we get the price hike on Apple products, I agree on Apple getting away with far too much, but then so does BT and Sky etc etc so they aren't special in that regard.
I still would use Spotify anyway due to the fact Apples interface is garbage and it kinda shoves Apple Music down your throat in its iPod app. It would be my protest to them haha.
 


Spotify has explicitly told artists who offer Apple Music exclusives that their music won't be included on featured playlists, and Spotify has also "buried" their songs in its search rankings. The music streaming service has reportedly been using these retaliatory tactics for about a year.

Well that's one way to make a bad situation even worse for yourself.
 
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