As reported by Musically (via iMore), Apple's global Senior Director of Music publishing, Elean Segal, has shot down the possibility that Apple will introduce a free Apple Music tier, based on ads.
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Segal was answering questions to British members of parliament in the UK's Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport committee, alongside representatives from Spotify and Amazon, about the economics of streaming services. The trio of representatives was asked about the price of their subscriptions, and their thoughts about free tiers for their services.
Spotify and Amazon both offer free tiers for their music streaming services, however, the experience includes frequent interruptions with ads and limited in-app features. On whether Apple would introduce a free tier for Apple Music with ads, Segal says that a free tier wouldn't generate enough revenue to "support a healthy overall ecosystem," and that it "also really goes against our fundamental values on privacy."
At a FAQ section on the Apple Music webpage, when asked whether the service has commercials, Apple emphatically says "Apple Music has zero ads." An ad-free listening experience has always been a cornerstone of Apple's marketing for the service, and while it was unlikely a free-tier with ads would ever launch, the confirmation from an Apple executive will now put to rest any simmering hope.
Apple doesn't have tiers for Apple Music that offer different features, such as some of its competitors. Instead, Apple's pricing model around the service is based on users' personal needs. For a single user, Apple Music costs $9.99 a month, a family plan which allows up to six members is $14.99 a month, and students get a discounted $4.99 per month plan. Additionally, Apple Music is part of Apple One, a bundle that offers customers a set monthly price for access to different Apple services.
Apple One includes three separate plans, each offering Apple Music. The lowest plan costing $14.95, includes access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage. The mid-tier for $19.95, adds an extra 150GB of iCloud storage, and the highest tier for $29.95, offers 2TB of storage, the ability to share with five other family members, and access to Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ (where available).
Top Rated Comments
And music has to either get more expensive, or artists need to get larger share of the streaming revenue. As the current situation is, they are earning pennies, and this is unsustainable (for artists, of course, for those running the music industry, they make piles of money).
Also, there's nothing stopping people who *pay* for Spotify and Apple Music sampling those artists as part of the incredibly good value package they already have. £10 a month for all the music you can dream of. If you care about smaller artists and want to sample their music for free before you buy, there's YouTube and Bandcamp for stuff like that.
The only thing a free tier is useful for is getting people into Spotify's ecosystem. There's not really a coherent argument that it's any good at all for artists, to try and make that argument is a bit silly.
I do want that new Windows app sooner than later though. Every time I think about trying out competing services that bad Windows or web experience is what start the thinking proces.