
Spotify’s free-on-demand model was controversial when the company launched in 2008, and Grainge was an early supporter, striking a deal with the company when he ran Universal’s International arm.

More than a year ago, the company also launched a free mobile version that gives users more limited access to songs. It serves those users ads, and hopes to convert them to a paid, ad-free model that lets them listen on mobile phones.
Is spotify free in itunes Pc#
Spotify currently lets users listen to anything they want via a laptop or PC for free. The label is in the midst of renegotiating its deal with Spotify, and is pushing the service to change its freemium model. Privately, music executives say, Grainge and his top executives have been much more direct. “Ad-funded on-demand is not going to sustain the entire ecosystem of the creators as well as the investors.” “We want to accelerate paid subscription,” Grainge said at the Code/Media conference last month.
Is spotify free in itunes for free#
In November, Sony Music’s CFO told reporters the company was rethinking its support for free streaming music in December, Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper said that free music services need to convert more users to paying subscribers.Īnd Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, who runs the world’s biggest music label, has also been the most vocal about getting the industry to focus on paid services instead of free ones. Sources say Apple would like to make a splash by getting high-profile artists to distribute their music with Apple before it makes its way to other services.Īnd as I’ve previously reported, Apple wants to lower the $10-a-month price that has become standard for subscription services $8 a month is a likely target, as 9to5 Mac reported earlier this year.Īpple’s anti-free pitch syncs up with public and private comments from top executives at the big music labels in recent months. Now Apple is negotiating with the music labels for licenses for a revamped version of Beats. Apple bought Beats last year, partly to help it gain a foothold on streaming music just as iTunes sales of digital downloads had started to drop.

Is spotify free in itunes trial#
Unlike Spotify and YouTube, Apple’s service won’t offer a free “tier” of music interspersed with ads - after an initial trial period, you’ll need to pay to play.Īpple executives, led by media head Eddy Cue and Beats Music founder Jimmy Iovine, have been arguing that the music business “needs to get behind a paywall,” say people who have talked to them. Apple says it wants to help them.Īpple executives have been telling the music industry it can help them roll back the tide of free digital music by relaunching its own subscription streaming service this year. The big music labels want that to change. Right now it’s easy to stream any song you want, whenever you want, legally, without paying a penny.
