“You better believe that when Apple’s streaming music service comes out later this year, it’s going to come hard,” Josh Constine reports for TechCrunch.
“Apple’s MO is to arrive late but with superior firepower, as it did with the iPhone and will with the upcoming Apple Watch. What does that mean for its quest to steamroll Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, and everyone else in streaming?” Constine reports. “I’d bet part of it will be big exclusives, offering music you can’t stream anywhere else.”
“Apple denied unsubstantiated rumors that it would acquire Taylor Swift’s label Big Machine this weekend, but that idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched,” Constine reports. “Yes, The Beatles’ label happened to be called Apple Records, but what if Apple Computer [sic Apple Inc.] got into the business of owning music itself?”
Read more in the full article here.
There is no such company as “Apple Computer”.
Nope!
Legally, Apple Inc cannot become a record label as per their agreement with The Beatles label
‘Apple Corps records’ that has been in existence since 1967.
Agreed. However, would it be possible for the Beats brand to become a label under Apple’s ownership? Would that violate the agreement?
IF Apple was seriously contemplating a move like this, I imagine their first purchase would be Apple Corps Records.
I don’t know the specifics about using another name, but I do know McCartney, Ono, and Starr have made it abundantly clear that Apple corps is not for sale.
Apple Inc. already owns all the trademarks related to “Apple”. They license some of them back to Apple Corps. The terms of the 2007 settlement are confidential, so it’s unclear as to what Apple Inc. can or can’t do.
It’s entirely possible that Apple Inc. can do whatever it wants as long as they’re not using “Apple Corps”. Or the settlement could’ve detailed this very specific scenario where Apple Inc. as a label would use something like “Apple Music” or iTunes or some other brand name (like Beats).
I find it hard to believe that Apple couldn’t find some way to become a label if they really wanted to. Maybe that’s the reason they bought Beats: to have Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre run the Beats Music record label in house. The money Apple spent would certainly start to make sense then.
You all forget something.
On 5 February 2007, Apple Inc. and Apple Corps announced a settlement of their trademark dispute under which Apple Inc. will own all of the trademarks related to “Apple” and will license certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use.
They can become a label.