On Sunday night time, a reported 113 million international viewers watched Kendrick Lamar’s half-time spectacle on the Tremendous Bowl LIX, because the Philadelphia Eagles triumphed over the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. And the way did the annual musical show-stopper start? With a graphic of Apple’s shiny purple Apple Music branding consuming the outside of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. You possibly can watch the efficiency — and its daring branding — on the official NFL YouTube channel, in a video titled Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present. It’s at the moment sitting at a cool 41 million views.
Seemingly few eyebrows had been raised concerning the $3.5 trillion-dollar firm being the Robin to Kendrick’s Batman that night time. Would we now have seen an analogous non-reaction if Spotify fronted the purported $50 million to sponsor the Massive Sport with such brash commercialisation? Uncertain.
Spotify has grow to be the music supervillain up to now few years. The streaming large comes below fixed scrutiny for its infamously low royalties payout (as little as $0.003), regardless of CEO Daniel Ek defending its $10 billion payouts to the music {industry}; Ek himself is slammed by followers, artists and music professionals for his scorching takes, eye-bulging shares cashouts and big investments into arms producers; Spotify customers had been even disillusioned by the alleged use of generative AI to roll out its beloved Spotify Wrapped characteristic, citing inaccurate details and poor graphic design. And that’s with out the lawsuits and the UK authorities’s requires Spotify to be reformed.
Spotify is, nonetheless, the most-used streaming service on the planet. It reported a complete of 640 million customers in 2024, whereas Apple Music is manner behind at 93 million, as final reported by Statista in 2023.
Apple Music, in the meantime, seems to be considered one of many good guys among the many streaming giants (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal and Amazon Music). Apple Inc is, after all, critiqued repeatedly for a few of its enterprise practices and product blunders. However the one actual destructive press that Apple Music will get as a streaming service is concerning the UX of its app, with reviewers and customers bemoaning its clunky navigation. That’s a fairly minor gripe when taking a look at Spotify’s troubles.
Tim Cook dinner’s Cupertino tech behemoth typically wins brownie factors for its protection of recent music and engagement with music tradition by way of its in-app radio station Apple Music 1. Frankly, its radio- and podcast-style content material is excellent, with unparalleled artist entry to superstars together with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Taylor Swift, and, sure, undoubtedly Kendrick Lamar.
Following Lamar’s sweep on the Grammys, Apple Music carried out The Official Kendrick Lamar Interview on 6 Feb 2025. It was printed on Apple Music’s YouTube, the place it has 680,000 views on the time of writing, and was plastered throughout the House Display screen of the Apple Music app. Apple additionally celebrated Lamar with a bespoke editorial characteristic on Apple Information, a “particular Health+ Artist highlight” and a radio section by Apple Music Radio host Ebro Darden titled Kendrick Lamar: Hip-Hop’s MVP.
Sure, that’s all a little bit overkill. We might speculate all the explanations that Apple is shopping for into Lamar so aggressively proper now (actually shopping for? That half’s not clear…), however the level right here is that Apple’s common high-profile devotion to artists is partly what provides the streaming service such a constructive picture. Billie Eilish was topped Apple Music’s Artist Of The 12 months in 2024 and partnered with the model on her 2021 album, Happier Than Ever for an unique listening expertise. The notorious 100 Finest Albums record gave flowers to a few of music’s most revered artists and albums, and the platform was the frontrunner in adopting and selling spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, which prompted many basic tracks to get a rerelease (though did obtain some criticism of its personal). For producers utilizing Apple’s DAW, Logic Professional, there’ll probably be an appreciation in the direction of Apple which might prolong to Apple Music. Elton John even has his personal radio present on Apple Music, together with many different iconic artists. Actually this degree of artist synergy and integration made Apple Music a pure match for the halftime present’s major sponsor, a slot the corporate took over from Pepsi in 2022.
It’s nonetheless removed from an ideal platform, although. As producer Benn Jordan identified in January, Apple Music’s royalties are round double that of Spotify and YouTube Music at $0.0061 however aren’t precisely industry-leading — Tidal and Amazon Music (and Peloton) are profitable in that area. And, whereas all of Apple Music’s editorial protection probably stems from a ardour amongst its workers, it’s finally all in place to advertise the service and Apple’s product catalogue quite than the artist. The Tremendous Bowl present was, naturally, concluded with a limited-time provide to hitch Apple Music. As at all times, it’s all advertising and marketing.
That’s probably how Apple comes out on high. It’s been the grasp model of promoting since Steve Jobs started stepping out onto the stage to announce iPods, iPhones and iMacs in his ‘Stevenote’ displays. Right this moment, Apple’s digital Occasions are circled on the calendars of each tech and music publication, and music performs a key function right here, too, typically giving lesser-known artists a nod within the Occasion’s backing monitor.
Spotify doesn’t seem as fascinated by being a music platform — it prefers to be a streaming platform. There was a Spotify x FanDuel Tremendous Bowl occasion with Blink-182, Megan Thee Stallion and Anderson. Paak performing, certainly one of many music-centric occasions that happened round New Orleans throughout Tremendous Bowl weekend. However, over on the Spotify app, However, over on the app, it makes use of an AI DJ to curate your music, quite than fee precise DJs to file mixes, and there’s potential for us to see much more AI-created music on Spotify following the feedback of co-president Gustav Söderström. The push on podcasting content material — notably that $250 million Joe Rogan Expertise deal — appeared to alienate some musicians and followers from the audio streaming platform.
However does Apple Music’s integration with the broader music scene translate to raised monetary assist for musicians? Nicely, perhaps for the larger artists. Apple says it pays a mean of $0.01 per play, opposite to Benn Jordan’s level, however is probably going primarily based on the stream share mannequin it employs. This implies, hypothetically, if Kendrick Lamar will get 5 per cent of the overall streams on Apple Music this month, he’s entitled to five per cent of all royalties from the platform. Will Kendrick get extra performs because of Apple Music’s protection and sponsorship? You possibly can rely on it — significantly provided that, as introduced by Roc Nation, the NFL and Apple Music on Tuesday, Lamar’s efficiency was probably the most watched Tremendous Bowl halftime present efficiency of all time, with 133.5 million viewers (Even Spotify wins from this success, with the platform asserting that Lamar’s catalogue noticed a 430% streaming bump within the days after the sport).
Acknowledging its streaming mannequin in a 2021 article, Apple stated: “Like different [streaming platforms], we now have checked out various royalty fashions. Our evaluation has proven that they’d end in a restricted redistribution of royalties with a diverse influence on artists. Per play, charges would stop to be the identical for each play of a tune. However extra importantly, the adjustments wouldn’t enhance what all creators earn from streaming. As an alternative, these adjustments would shift royalties in the direction of a small variety of labels whereas offering much less transparency to creators all over the place.”
The reality is, as many artists will let you know, there isn’t a ‘good man’ among the many streaming giants proper now. The one heroes, actually, are the followers that purchase digital and bodily copies of artist’s music, go to their reveals, and (in our trendy world) subscribe to their direct-to-fan platforms.
Nonetheless, Apple Music appears well-positioned. Elton John, Lauryn Hill, Kacey Musgraves and extra thanked Apple Music when their albums had been ranked within the model’s 100 Finest Albums awards in 2024. How typically do you hear musicians thanking Spotify?
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