Apple reportedly creating original music videos for top artists in bid for Apple Music exclusivity

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited July 2015
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.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    I still think that the end goal is to cut out the labels. Apple only needs to subsidize the creation of music, studio time, equipment, etc, to create a direct from artist to Apple Music exclusive pathway for promising artists early in their efforts to establish themselves. Don't become the label, just seek to recoup the subsidies back into a fund that then can be invested in new artists. Apple Music replaces the labels promotional capabilities with its immediate, efficient and ultra-wide reach. Promotion becomes easy and automatic, built in to a platform designed for artist and music discovery. And the world turns...
  • Reply 2 of 17
    alcstarheelalcstarheel Posts: 554member
    "FTC meets with concerned companies regarding Apple's investment in music video production being an antitrust violation."
  • Reply 3 of 17
    ecatsecats Posts: 272member
    Apple doing more for artists, the rapidly decreasing cost of producing an album (read: technology) and Connect, publishers are losing some of their relevance. They'll still be required, but what all of this allows is more talent to get exposure rather than relying on conservative publishers who are more likely to endorse repetitive-certainty over newness.
  • Reply 4 of 17
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    The Drake video is on the following site:

    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.
  • Reply 5 of 17
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    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.

  • Reply 6 of 17
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    radarthekat wrote: »
    I still think that the end goal is to cut out the labels. Apple only needs to subsidize the creation of music, studio time, equipment, etc, to create a direct from artist to Apple Music exclusive pathway for promising artists early in their efforts to establish themselves. Don't become the label, just seek to recoup the subsidies back into a fund that then can be invested in new artists. Apple Music replaces the labels promotional capabilities with its immediate, efficient and ultra-wide reach. Promotion becomes easy and automatic, built in to a platform designed for artist and music discovery. And the world turns...

    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 ;) Let us not forget they have Jimmy Iovine on board. Promotion is not beyond Apple either and perhaps we haven't even started to see the full thinking behind his joining yet. Just imagine had Jim Croce been allowed to keep 70% of his earnings what a difference that might have made!
  • Reply 7 of 17
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    Marvin wrote: »
    The Drake video is on the following site:

    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.
    It's also on Zumic. Solip will love the lyrics, :D
    https://vid.me/x9MI
  • Reply 8 of 17
    macky the mackymacky the macky Posts: 4,801member
    ascii wrote: »
    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.

    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...
  • Reply 9 of 17
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member
    Getting in early practise for their own TV content.
  • Reply 10 of 17
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Got to give Jimmy something to do for all the money they're paying him.
  • Reply 11 of 17
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Who the hell is Drake and how does someone with no evident career path go from no-name to chart topper overnight? Is he some music executive's kid? Plus...a Canadian rapper? What is this, the Twilight Zone? /s
  • Reply 12 of 17
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    rayz wrote: »
    Getting in early practise for their own TV content.

    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.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    pistispistis Posts: 247member
    some bands usually start off with a hard core group of fans that as you say " stick it to the man" and at some point if they actually have talent get noticed and break thru to the mainstream. The selling out part is your assigning some kind of credence to the idea that the band was sticking it to the man in the first place. Not always so and in my experience not so. Most bands start out just doing it for fun rather than actually doing a day job because that would involve fitting in with the 9 to 5 grind. How many musicians are capable of doing a real job anyway? If they make it of course they want to make as much money and screw as many groupies as possible, history is replete with that. All that happens is the hard core diminishes and get replaced with other fans who think they are hip being associated with the new music.
    ascii wrote: »
    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.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    multimediamultimedia Posts: 1,035member
    From where I sit as an avid Trance and House fan, I think Apple Music is all Crap all the time. I don't even listen to my free trial ever. I had a taste of the opening of Beats 1 - horrible crap, lost all my music and playlists. With iCloud Music turned ON without a “[B]You will lose all your music[/B]” warning, when I realized TOO LATE that without warning it was gonna destroy my music on my iPad so I turned it OFF and sure enough all the songs and playlists I had manually loaded onto my iPad were [B]GONE DELETED OBLITERATED MISSING - with no apology from Apple forthcoming[/B].

    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.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    multimediamultimedia Posts: 1,035member
    SpamSandwich wrote: »
    Who the hell is Drake and how does someone with no evident career path go from no-name to chart topper overnight? Is he some music executive's kid? Plus...a Canadian rapper? What is this, the Twilight Zone? /s
    Drake is very popular with the kids. He hosted an episode of SNL this 40th season. His rap isn't half bad if you like Rap. He's kinda cute in an urban black scene kinda way. You can check out samples of his work on iTunes or in your Apple Music trial.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    hexclockhexclock Posts: 1,250member
    Amazing how many of those teens who want to "stick it to the man" use iPhones, play Xbox or Playstation, and buy clothing from huge companies.
  • Reply 17 of 17
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,560member
    pistis wrote: »
    some bands usually start off with a hard core group of fans that as you say " stick it to the man" and at some point if they actually have talent get noticed and break thru to the mainstream. The selling out part is your assigning some kind of credence to the idea that the band was sticking it to the man in the first place. Not always so and in my experience not so. Most bands start out just doing it for fun rather than actually doing a day job because that would involve fitting in with the 9 to 5 grind. How many musicians are capable of doing a real job anyway? If they make it of course they want to make as much money and screw as many groupies as possible, history is replete with that. All that happens is the hard core diminishes and get replaced with other fans who think they are hip being associated with the new music.

    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.
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