Apple chases limited streaming rights from big name acts

Apple is reportedly in talks with big-name musicians including UK’s Florence & The Machine (pictured) to give it limited streaming rights to use on its forthcoming streaming service.

Bloomberg reports Apple wants to offer a track from the Universal Music artist'supcoming third LP How Big How Blue How Beautiful – set for release in June – exclusively on its streaming service. Apple is allegedly after limited streaming rights from the bandas well as a dozen other artists including Taylor Swift.

It wouldn’t be out of character for Swift to offer exclusive deals for her music via Apple. She did pull her entire catalogue from Spotify in November, however her issue was with the streaming giant’s 'all or nothing' streaming model, which wouldn’t allow her to list her music exclusively on the paid tier.

Apple has been readying its music streaming service since it acquired Beats Electronics and its own Beats Music service for US$3 billion in May last year. It’s tipped to launch in June, to coincide with the annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

The service, which is set to feature no free tiers, is picked to compete with Spotify, Deezer and no-free tier newcomer TIDAL, which launched with 17 artist owners at the end of March, including Madonna, Rihanna, Calvin Harris and Arcade Fire. Reports suggest there will be a US$9.99-a-month subscription for individuals and a family plan for US$14.99.

Information on the team behind the service has been drip-fed to media over the past few months; former BBC Radio 1 taste-making presenterZane Loweis reportedly in charge of reconfiguring iTunes Radio, as well as being its chief curator and figurehead, and Trent Reznor, who was Chief Creative Officer at Beats Music is allegedly designing the iPhones music app to include the new streaming service.

The pair join the core Beats team/current Apple employees of former Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, CEO of Beats by Dre Luke Wood and Beats Electronics founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Iovine,former Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records,reports toEddy Cue, Apple’s head of software and Internet services. Iovinehas been leading the discussions with labels and artists aboutsecuringexclusive album and track releases.

Apple isthe biggest retailer of music, itsiTunes has more than 800 million customer accounts.