“Apple has hatched a killer plan against Spotify and YouTube, according to reports citing a music industry executive who said: ‘All the way up to (Apple CEO) Tim Cook, these guys are cutthroat,'” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“The plans are so extensive regulators in Europe and the US are asking music business execs questions about Apple and its attempts to persuade labels to withdraw their content from free music streaming services in favor of charging a fee,” Evans writes. “Spotify would be particularly impacted by such proposals — just 15 million of its 60 million listeners pay a fee.”
“Apple’s attempt to limit free music streaming comes as major labels wake up to the existential threat to their industry these services represent,” Evans writes. “Some claim Spotify pays artists as little as $0.00029 per play. If that’s true then an act whose music gets streamed a million times won’t make enough cash in a year to pay the front man’s rent – let along to put enough gas in the engine to hire a long wheel-base tour bus… Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke took his music off Spotify in protest at this exploitation in 2013, Tweeting, ‘Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will not get paid.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We wouldn’t want to be a new talent in the music business today. “Born too late” they must mutter to themselves multiple times per day. Mainstream music has been commoditized and devalued and is generally awful as a result.
There is enough “free” (illegal) music on the Internet already. It makes absolutely no sense for the music industry to continue heaping free music onto the pile via Spotify’s and other unprofitable, unsustainable “freemium” schemes.
