This is the cost of a company getting to be a certain size or have a certain influence on its surrounding industries.
Apparently, Apple is unlikely to offer a free, ad-supported tier for its upcoming streaming music service. It also seemed like Apple was going to try to undercut competitors like Spotify by offering its service for US$7.99 per month. Now, it’s looking like Apple might not be able to use price to catch up to Spotify — a report from Billboard indicates that the record companies are unsurprisingly unhappy with Apple’s attempt to make streaming music even cheaper. As such, it sounds like Apple is no longer pushing that price point and will instead price its service at the now-standard US$9.99 per month.
Apple is also reportedly hoping to use the power and clout iTunes gained over the last decade-plus as the world’s largest music retailer to try and get more exclusive content as a way to combat Spotify’s dominance in the streaming market.
Even so, it sounds like the record labels aren’t inclined to give Apple that content at the same time as it is trying to make subscriptions services even cheaper. “Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world,” an unnamed music executive told Billboard. “If they want exclusive content, they’re going to have to get out the checkbook.”
And that may be the case, as a checkbook settles a lot of disputes…