In an interesting development, Pitchfork reports that Apple is making music videos for artists in-house. It claims the music videos for Pharrell William’s ‘Freedom’, Drake’s ‘Energy’ and Eminem’s ‘Phenomenal’ were all made by Apple content studios. These artists have certainly helped with the Apple Music launch (with both Pharrell and Drake having their own radio show on Beats 1) so it wouldn’t be out of the question that Apple is ‘compensating’ them with produced music videos. It certainly seems like a good way of brokering a deal for music exclusivity.
Of course, the idea of Apple content creation is weird — especially in such a niche area of music videos. Pitchfork is adamant however and says that Apple is working with more artists including Purity Ring, Diddy and James Bay. Another Apple Music exclusive launching on Monday from ‘M.I.A’ is also said to feature a music video been produced entirely by Apple’s internal team.
Meanwhile Larry Jackson, who leads Apple Music content according to Pitchfork, has responded to Spotify CEO’s jab with a ‘Oh ok.’ tweet of his own.
Oh ok. 👊🏾😉 http://t.co/OnIBvlvfqT #AppleMusicBreaksTheInternet #Content #Culture #Curation #EnergyVideoOnConnect
— Larry Jackson (@LarryJackson) July 10, 2015