by Luke Johnson 11 April 2015 |
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Having shunned Spotify over earnings disagreements, Taylor Swift is being tapped up by Apple to front its refreshed Beats Music streaming service, reports have claimed.
Citing unnamed ‘people familiar with the matter’, Bloomberg claims Apple has reportedly approached Swift about supplying exclusive content for its upcoming Spotify challenger.
It is believed Apple is hoping to tie Swift to a series of Beats Music exclusive tacks in order to tempt fans into signing up for the subscription-based service.
Although Swift stripped her entire back catalogue from Spotify late last year, the pop princes has since allowed her tunes to appear on Jay Z’s new artist-owned streaming service, Tidal.
Swift is not alone on Apple’s hit list either. According to reports, the iPhone 6 maker has also approached ‘more than a dozen other artists’, including Florence and the Machine, over exclusive content.
A reworked Beats Music streaming service has long been tipped to be part of Apple’s plans since the Cupertino-based company acquired the headphone giant for $3 billion last year.
Related: Tidal: The Story so Far
Given the increasingly competitive streaming market, it is believed any Beats Music relaunch would require a mass of exclusive content in order to challenge the industry’s established leading players.
“Given how easy it is to obtain free streaming music on the web, any subscription payment gateway needs to involve a differentiator to warrant a pay model like that,” said Tom Webster, vice president of strategy and marketing at Edison Research.
It has been suggested that a monthly Beats Music subscription will set you back $9.99 (£6.83), although Apple has yet to formally confirm plans for such a service.