The war between streaming services is growing more intense by the day, and the new battleground, seemingly broken by TIDAL, is exclusive content by artists and content partners. According to a new Bloomberg report, Apple is making its move to try and gather some exclusives of its own, targeting major pop stars like Taylor Swift, Florence + The Machine and more than a dozen other artists.
Swift famously pulled her music from Spotify after it refused to limit her music to just the paying tiered level of its service, which has much higher payouts than the free level. It is now currently only available on TIDAL.
According to the report, Apple is in talks with the British band to get limited streaming rights to a track from their upcoming artist album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, slated for release June 1. It has approached Swift about a partnership, though details are scarce.
It was revealed a few days ago that Kanye West was approached about a sort of partnership with Apple, but he turned that down. He is one of the 16 primary artist owners of TIDAL, which could be one of the primary reasons he turned down the Apple offer.
The hope is that by shelling out big dollars for these major artists, their fans will be willing to buy in to these streaming services and thus ensure higher payouts for artists, the service and everyone in the industry.
Apple is currently retooling Beats Music with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor at the helm. It should be relaunching later this year, with a $9.99 per month price tag attached for individuals and $14.99 per month for families. Apple recently lured BBC Radio One broadcaster and tastemaker Zane Lowe away from his position in the U.K. to Cupertino, where he will be heading up an initiative to help rebrand and refocus iTunes radio.
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