Apple Wants Exclusive Deals for Its New Streaming Music Service From Taylor Swift, Others

Apple has asked Florence and the Machine and more than a dozen other artists for exclusive deals to promote its revamped Beats Music service, reports Bloomberg.

The company’s in talks with the British group, which is set to release an album in June, about giving Apple limited streaming rights to a track, and has approached Taylor Swift and others about partnerships, according to people familiar with the matter. The idea is that exclusives will be bait for music lovers loathe to pay for subscriptions.

Apple is expected to revamp Beats Music into the Music app and relaunch it this summer. It's believed to cost $9.99/month for individuals and $14.99/month for families. Apple had hoped to offer the service for a lower price but they couldn't get music labels on board.


“Given how easy it is to obtain free streaming music on the Web, any subscription payment gateway needs to involve a differentiator to warrant a pay model like that,” said Tom Webster, vice president of strategy and marketing at Edison Research. For Apple it could be “the power of the Beats brand. That’s the x-factor.”

Apple is said to be working on an iOS 8.4 update codenamed 'Copper' that includes the music streaming service. For more details on what the Beats integration looks like, click here.

It's possible that Apple could announce or tease the service at its upcoming developer conference in June. Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates.

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