In an effort to win back its costumer base from streaming websites like Spotify and Tidal, Apple will launch a music subscription service of its own Tuesday.
The new project may have Spotify running scared. Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Ek has remained tight-lipped about Spotify’s increasing competition, tweeting and deleting the phrase “Oh Ok” after Apple’s announcement.
The $10-a-month service, dubbed Apple Music, is set to offer the entirety of Apple’s 30 million song catalog to its subscribers. Taylor Swift fought the service for royalties after the company announced it would offer a 3-month free trial to prospective users. (RELATED: Taylor Swift Forces Apple To Change Streaming Music Policy)
“Apple Music changes the conversation — it has to,” general manager of Spotify Europe Jonathan Forster said in a report by Business Insider.
“But being big does not mean that you win.”
With Apple’s IOS 8.4 update, which is also set for a Tuesday release, Mac products in more than 100 countries will come equipped with the Apple Music app. The company hopes this will attract some of its over 800 million active iTunes users to the service, according to The Los Angeles Times.
While the streaming service will share fundamental similarities to its competitors, Apple has taken a user-interactive direction with Apple Music that may give it a competitive edge in the market.
With the “Connect” function of the application, Apple Music artists will be able to post exclusive music, pictures, lyrics, video and commentary directly to the user.
“When musicians are free to express themselves directly to their fans, it’s a powerful thing,” says Apple.
Forster believes that the addition of Apple Music “validates” Spotify’s business model.
“The company that was dominating the other way now saying we were right is a good feeling,” he said.
In the days following the announcement of Apple Music, Spotify closed a $526 million funding deal that now values the Swedish-based company at $8.53 billion. Spotify currently has 75 million active users, of whom 20 million are paying customers, according to Business Insider.
