Spotify punishing artists who have Apple exclusive deals

That said, exclusives are clearly the only advantage that Apple and Tidal have over Spotify. Unnamed sources told the publication that songs which premiere on Apple Music are often kept off featured playlists once they migrate to Spotify, and, even worse, can be buried deep within search results. Rather, he reportedly quipped a pledge of “Spotify inclusives”.

EE is offering new and upgrading 4G customers a free six month subscription to Apple Music in a bid to attract and retain more customers and show off the ability of its LTE network.

Spotify continues to lead the market with 39 million subscribes to Apple Music’s reported 13 million subscribers.

Ocean released the visual album Endless as an Apple Music exclusive last Friday, his last album with Def Jam Recordings, a record label owned by Universal Music Group (The R&B singer had previously requested to be released from his contract, which was accepted).

The new deal is being backed with a major advertising campaign, starring Kevin Bacon and Britney Spears – whose album Glory launches exclusively on Apple Music.

In a new interview with Billboard, the Spotify executive explained his reasoning, noting that most users subscribe to one streaming service, which motivates fans to seek out exclusives from services they don’t subscribe to through pirate sites or YouTube, where it generates less revenue.

It might not like artists having exclusive deals with its rivals but Spotify does not punish them by making them harder to find in its library, it has argued following a report that claimed it did.

Streaming services may be far and away the preferred outlet to listen to music, and if you’re a brand new band hitting the scene, you can’t afford to go without it. Obviously, this could influence users to move to Apple to have their favorite music available first.

Carter says that despite his role being to strengthen Spotify’s relationships with artists his objective isn’t to sign them up to support Spotify exclusively as an artist.

At least according to Bloomberg’s informants, Spotify’s hardball tactics are helping keep artists neutral in the streaming wars.

Marc Allera, EE CEO said that the company wished to “bring our customers services from the best companies in the world”.