Generally speaking, Apple Music‘s off to a flyer – and the world’s big independent labels are on board.
That is, with one important exception.
Ministry Of Sound, the UK’s fourth biggest record company, has long operated as a completely autonomous unit within the ‘independent music community’.
It’s not part of the UK’s Association Of Independent Music (AIM), for example.
That attitude clearly goes for fitting in with the launch timelines of corporate giants: MBW understands that Ministry has not licensed Apple Music – although negotiations with the Cupertino giant are ongoing.
Albums-wise, that means the much-praised debut LP from London Grammar (pictured) as well as efforts from the likes of Example and DJ Fresh are not available to stream on the service today.
The bulk of Ministry’s record business, though, comes from its world-famous compilations.
MBW understands the label is determined not to put its content on Apple Music until some allowances are made for its core revenue generator.
Quite what Spotify did to work through this impasse remains unknown, but London Grammar and other Ministry material are on the Swedish service.
That didn’t happen without years of disagreement, however.
As Ministry boss Lohan Presencer told MBW in a public Q&A in May:
“We asked Spotify to take down [Ministry-aping] playlists. They refused. We asked again, nicely, they continued to refuse. So we sued them.”
The relationship between the parties is now cordial, if tentative – as Ministry attempts to balance its traditional business model with the streaming revolution.
As for his refusal to license Apple Music so far, Presencer gave MBW a simple “no comment” today.Music Business Worldwide
