Spotify's former head of label relations recruited for identical role at Apple Music

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV
Apple on Thursday confirmed the hiring of Steve Savoca, once in charge of Spotify's label relations, as it looks to equip Apple Music and/or iTunes with a more competitive catalog.




Savoca signed on in January, a spokesperson told Business Insider. The site added that under his new bosses he will run Apple label relations from an office in New York, concentrating on independent labels, with a special focus on international markets.

The executive was with Spotify for over five years, but left in August. Prior to that he was the head of digital at Domino Records, and did marketing stints at music companies like Zomba, Jive, and London-Sire Records.

Apple Music has often relied heavily on exclusives from artists like Drake, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift to distinguish itself from Spotify. The services otherwise share many similar features, though they serve content differently and Apple Music is built into iOS and macOS, which offers advantages like Siri voice commands.

Spotify, however, is often the de facto choice for artists and labels, owing to its larger audience. While Apple does have over 20 million subscribers, Spotify has at least 40 million paid customers plus another 60 million using its free ad-based tier.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    lukeilukei Posts: 379member
    No Spotify will not be dead. Please stop spouting your baseless nonsense. 
  • Reply 2 of 8
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    So I guess having Jimmy Iovine as an employee is not adequate to obtain good relations with labels.
    slprescottlostkiwi
  • Reply 3 of 8
    NotsofastNotsofast Posts: 450member
    lukei said:
    No Spotify will not be dead. Please stop spouting your baseless nonsense. 
    He may be wrong, but it's certainly not baseless with billions in debt and increasing losses, over $200 million last year.  More importantly, it may have a broken business model that will never make money. in a market with huge competitors that don't need to make money on streaming, e.g., Apple, Google, Microsoft and host of smaller competitors.  Moreover, streaming has become largely a commoditized product where it's hard to differentiate on anything other than price, that favors companies like Apple and Amazon that not only afford to lose money on it, but can offer it as an add on.  Read this article to get an objective view.

    http://fortune.com/2016/05/24/spotify-financials/
    lostkiwiwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 8
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    sog35 said:
    Smart move by Mr Savoca.

    he can see the handwritting on the Wall.

    Spotify will be dead or nearly dead in 18 months.
    It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Spotify this year. All their license deals with the big labels have expired. I guess they want to pay even less than they currently did. Spotify was already paying less to the labels than Apple. From what I read, the record labels don't want Spotify to fail so I'm sure deals will be worked out before they go public later in 2017. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 8
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,486member
    Going from a job with a questionable future to one with a bright future. Smart move. 
    slprescottcalilostkiwiwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 8
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member
    Spotify should try to make money on their Agile model...
  • Reply 7 of 8
    raulcristianraulcristian Posts: 64member
    I am kind of an Apple fanboy, but I do love Spotify. I plan on keeping my family subscription forever.
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