Apple reportedly creating original music videos for top artists in bid for Apple Music exclusivity
A report on Friday claims Apple is producing in-house music videos and other content for chart-topping artists, including Eminem, Pharrell and Drake, the latter of which released such a video on Friday as an Apple Connect exclusive.

Drake as Miley Cyrus in his new music video "Energy."
According to Pitchfork, Apple's production team created videos for Pharrell's "Freedom," Eminem's "Phenomenal" and Drake's "Energy," all of which debuted as Apple Music exclusives.
The company's next big project is said to be a short film accompanying a two-track release from M.I.A. called "Matahdatah Scroll 01 Broader Than a Border," slated to land on July 13 according to Apple Music's Twitter account.
When asked for comment, Apple Music's head of content Larry Jackson posted the following on Twitter:
Media reports covering Drake's "Energy" video today noted the skillful execution of special effects that morphed the rapper into pop icons and headline makers like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Oprah, Kanye West, O.J. Simpson, Rob Ford, President Barack Obama and more. Drake, who showed up for the Apple Music reveal at WWDC last month, also announced he will be hosting his own show on Beats 1 radio starting Saturday, July 11 at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Exclusive access to new releases and content is thought to be key to Apple Music's success. For example, when the service launched on June 30 it debuted Pharrell's single "Freedom," scored an exclusive Beats 1 radio interview with Eminem, announced a bi-weekly show hosted by Dr. Dre -- who granted streaming rights to his seminal The Chronic -- and pulled off a coup by striking a deal to stream Taylor Swift's hit album 1989.

Drake as Miley Cyrus in his new music video "Energy."
According to Pitchfork, Apple's production team created videos for Pharrell's "Freedom," Eminem's "Phenomenal" and Drake's "Energy," all of which debuted as Apple Music exclusives.
The company's next big project is said to be a short film accompanying a two-track release from M.I.A. called "Matahdatah Scroll 01 Broader Than a Border," slated to land on July 13 according to Apple Music's Twitter account.
When asked for comment, Apple Music's head of content Larry Jackson posted the following on Twitter:
Oh ok. 👊🏾😉
http://t.co/OnIBvlvfqT
#AppleMusicBreaksTheInternet
#Content #Culture #Curation
#EnergyVideoOnConnect
-- Larry Jackson (@LarryJackson)
Media reports covering Drake's "Energy" video today noted the skillful execution of special effects that morphed the rapper into pop icons and headline makers like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Oprah, Kanye West, O.J. Simpson, Rob Ford, President Barack Obama and more. Drake, who showed up for the Apple Music reveal at WWDC last month, also announced he will be hosting his own show on Beats 1 radio starting Saturday, July 11 at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Exclusive access to new releases and content is thought to be key to Apple Music's success. For example, when the service launched on June 30 it debuted Pharrell's single "Freedom," scored an exclusive Beats 1 radio interview with Eminem, announced a bi-weekly show hosted by Dr. Dre -- who granted streaming rights to his seminal The Chronic -- and pulled off a coup by striking a deal to stream Taylor Swift's hit album 1989.
Comments
http://www.ryanseacrest.com/2015/07/10/drake-imitates-justin-bieber-miley-cyrus-oprah-more-in-energy-video/
Apple will already have a production team for all their own ads so making exclusive music videos is a good way to keep them busy between product launches and build up exclusive content for Apple Music.
Being a successful artist requires being popular with teenagers, but teenage life is all about rebellion and sticking it to the man. If these artists (such as Drake) are too closely associated with big business (in this case Apple) the kids will think they are sell outs. In which case exclusivity is neither here nor there. When signing a business deal, you ignore the wider context to the detriment of the financial outcome.
And so they should. What you say is exactly what I have been saying for a long time too. If they offer independent artists a full marketing package and only take a 30% cut I am pretty sure that would make many sit up and think before selling their souls to a recording label. It is not that much difference from an App developer really. How many of the successful ones we have today would have made it in the pre AppStore days with all the overheads and risks. I see no reason why over time Apple can't indeed remove the grip of the recording labels. As to equipment, Logic pro X is a pretty good start but yes some 'Apple recording studios' around the world would be cool. Pretty good name for them too
https://vid.me/x9MI
Most of the teens that watch videos think a guy with a camera just showed up while the artist and backup dancers were having fun and singing and dancing... They don't know shit about shinola...
I hope Apple stays out of original content. They don't need original content to be able to sell millions of ?TV's. Stay focused on what they do best.
I am incensed Tim Cook did not make a public apology to those of us who lost everything. And only those of us who were able to use a Recent Time Machine Mac backup and get back to iTunes 12.1.2 AND turn OFF the new System Preference for the App Store to AUTO DOWNLOAD ALL UPDATES have survived this fiasco.
You haven't the slightest clue what it takes to make a living making music, do you?
Sixty-to-eighty-hour workweeks are normal; it's just that the work hours you actually see happen to take place largely when YOU guys are off work and like to party.
The rest of that - studio work, office, teaching, rehearsals, business meetings, training, practice, material preparation, lessons, ten-hour drives - is stuff you never even see.
You just get the carefully crafted image of partying rock'n'rollers and think you have a clue.