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Apple Music Head Calls It “Crazy” Other Streaming Platforms Offer Music for Free

“As a company, we look at music as art, and we would never want to give away art for free. It makes no sense to me,” Apple Music head Oliver Schusser said during a keynote at the NMPA’s annual meeting Wednesday.

In a statement, a spokesman for Spotify said the company remains the largest revenue driver in the music industry and said the ad-supported tier helps draw in more fans who would then convert to the premium offerings instead. While streaming saved the industry from an era of rampant piracy by offering fans a convenient alternative that’s still cheaper than buying individual albums, executives still argue the services could still be priced higher to reflect music’s worth. Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer, for example, said during an investor conference last year that ad-supported streaming platforms should be charging users a “modest fee” for the service, as Billboard reported at the time.

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