Unlike Spotify, Apple Music Will Not Offer A 'Totally Free' Mode

The Californian company defends its business model in Apple Music and does not contemplate a free subscription-based on ads like Spotify to guarantee royalties and the privacy of its users.

Elena Segal, Apple's global senior director of music publishing, confirmed to a UK parliamentary group through a telematic meeting the position of the Californian company on offering a free version of Apple Music.

Segal said that this possibility was ruled out in the company's plans. Adding that they would continue to bet on their business model through recurring subscriptions to guarantee royalties.

The motivation is clear, there are not many incentives to validate an income system that manages a healthy ecosystem. The director also mentioned that this route "would go against the fundamental values ​​of the company on privacy."

The statement was made when discussing the streaming business model, and whether it should be considered a sale or a rental when dividing the royalties. Representatives from Spotify and Amazon were also present at the intervention, where they showed their positions respectively.

Segal again offered his vision referring to licenses. "I see it as a license. We have a right, we have licenses that give us the right to sub-license consumers ... and that has always been true with music ."

I continue to refer to downloads in the era of iTunes and buying music on CD: “It was a piece of plastic and you were buying a license to use the music in that piece of plastic in certain ways ... It was the sale of a license, I would say. I'd say it's more like a rental."

Apple Music offers different subscription modalities

Like Spotify or Amazon, Apple Music also offers recurring payment plans that alleviate the financial burden of the contracted services. In addition to the traditional individual mode, Apple Music also offers discounts on family and educational plans and recently through Apple One, with which considerable savings are achieved.

It should be noted that the education plan also includes Apple TV + completely free, with which you can enjoy original Apple series and movies for a reduced price. Although there is no free model, sporadically the company tends to give a few months of courtesy to those customers who stopped using the streaming music service for some reason.

It is even relatively easy to find promotional codes in large stores with several months of access to Apple Music without having to make any additional purchases. In any case, we will not have a free subscription emulating Spotify with integrated advertisements.