Apple wants to meld Music and Apple TV+ into one monthly sub, to the chagrin of record companies

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As Apple TV+ prepares to launch in about a month Apple is hoping to bundle it with Apple Music for one subscription service to rule them all. Recently launching on the web, Apple Music is in a constant battle with Spotify to be your number one music streaming service.

Frankly, all streaming music sucks, but that’s my opinion and not the point here.

The point here is that at $4.99 a month Apple TV+ is going to be one hell of a deal. Apple Music and Spotify cost around $10 a month. So as the Financial Times reports, record companies are wary of a bundled service that might cut into their profit margins. We all know the actual artists are getting boned anyway, so it’s not like record labels are acting in the artists’ interests here.

Plus, it seems that record companies still have a sour taste in their mouths from when Apple forced them to agree to iTunes downloads of 99 cents back in the day. They aren’t too keen on once again bending to the will of Apple in order to participate in the streaming music economy at scale. To this point, negotiations are in the early stage and record companies haven’t agreed to any pricing tier or even shown anything but mild contempt for the idea.

It makes sense that Apple would attempt to bundle its entertainment services, including Apple News and Apple Arcade, with Apple TV+ as that will likely be very popular among the millions upon millions of iPhone users. Apple could end up doing it anyway, just paying the license fees (as I understand it) but appears to want the participation of record companies in order to offer the proposed bundle at a discount to subscribers.

In the same report, it is alluded to that some record companies are open to the idea, along with the ones who aren’t

Regardless, offering a bundled entertainment subscription to Apple services is a great idea for consumers and Apple itself. However, once again it’s the artist that gets fucked here. Sure, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift won’t take a hit, but all the independent and lower-tier artists surely will.

While we have no idea how well Apple TV+ or Apple Arcade will perform in the coming months and years, Apple’s goal here is to build the largest subscription base possible in order to eventually compete with Netflix and other larger streaming organizations. Even if that means undercutting artist profits.

If you want to help independent artists, stream Top 40 music, pay for individual albums from independent artists, go to their concerts. Fucking pay for art along with subscribing to it. Subscription services, especially music, should be the sample scoop before you buy an entire double scoop cone.

Regardless, Apple will surely get this done at some point, one subscription service at one ridiculously low price point in order to be able to jam more flavors down subscribers throats at some point in the future.

What do you think? Surprised by the news? Would you pay for a bundle like this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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