Apple Music director Jimmy Iovine thinks music streaming services are too similar, and that something has to change.
“The streaming services are all charging $9.99 and everyone has the same music,” he told the BBC.
“And it’s really nice. You get whatever song you want, you get your playlists – but there’s got to be more interaction between the artist and the audience.
The record producer and Beats co-founder seemed to hint that exclusives may be the way forward, despite record labels wanting you “to have the same music” on streaming sites.
“Netflix [is] spending $6bn (£4.2bn) a year on original content,” said Iovine.
“They have a unique catalogue and they charge you $10.99.
“So there’s a real rub there. Sooner or later something’s going to give.”
Apple has in fact snared exclusives in the past – including Frank Ocean‘s ‘Blonde’ and Drake‘s ‘Views’.
They previously had an exclusive content deal with Taylor Swift until she ended it in June last year, allowing rival services Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Music to stream her music.
Swift famously held her album ‘1989’ back from Apple’s streaming service when it launched in 2015 until the company agreed to pay writers, artists and producers during its customers’ three month trial period.
“We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” she wrote. “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
NME caught up with Jimmy Iovine on the red carpet for Netflix’s new original series ‘The Defiant Ones‘ -which tells the story of the rise and success of Dr Dre and Iovine in their early days through to meeting and building an empire together – and he revealed what he thinks is missing from hip-hop today.
Watch the video interview here.