Sony Music CEO confirms: Apple prepares to take on Spotify on its own turf.
Confirmation of Apple’s new streaming music service was given by Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, during the Midem Music conference in Cannes, France, yesterday.
Word of the upcoming project, which is planned to rival Spotify, Pandora and similar music streaming services, have been floating around, but only recently, Apple has shown signs of downplaying iTunes for a more profitable model of distributing music to consumers.
“It’s happening tomorrow” was Morris’s official statement, given on stage in no uncertain terms, over the course of an interview. Morris’s 37 years partnership with Jimmy Lovine, who is now running Apple’s music services, since the $3 billion dollar purchase of Beats, is also a boosting indicator that Apple will reveal the new service.
Apple Music is expected to be priced $9.99 per month. Music delivered through the service will be professionally curated for content quality.
Morris seems to be a big believer in online streaming, versus digital downloads, and commented that after WWDC 2015, the industry is likely to be at a ”...tipping point...”, and that the streaming music industry is expected to accelerate.
In several occasions, Morris spoke out his preference for business models based on paid subscriptions, rather than ad-supported. Apple has the cash flow to promote far beyond what Spotify and Pandora can do, combined, and most likely will. “...Spotify has never really advertised because it’s never been profitable. My guess is that Apple will promote this like crazy and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business...”, Morris commented at some point during the interview.
One big factor that is likely to boost popularity for the new service from the start, is that Apple will offer a service that extends beyond the Apple ecosystem. Apple is planning on making the new service available through an app that will also be available to Android users. According to what we can gather from Doug Morris’ statements, Apple is unlikely to provide a free, ad-supported version of the app, however it is likely that Apple Music will be offered as a limited time trial, typically 30 days, for users who may be looking for an alternative to Pandora or Spotify.