Latest news with #Schusser
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Apple Music Unveils New Culver City Studio Space
Apple Music has unveiled a new studio near its Culver City headquarters, an expansive 15,000-square-foot space the streaming service hopes will serve as an all-in-one creative hub where musicians can come for radio interviews, write and record new music, conduct photo shoots and film video content. Apple Music Studios opens this summer and will serve as the home for some of Apple Music Radio's marquee programming, including the Zane Lowe Show. Apple didn't disclose how much the studios cost to develop, but the construction and the tech in the building is significant. The aesthetic is very Apple: warm wood floors, sleek black walls and pops of color. The building features two large radio studios decked out with specially made spatial audio speakers built into the ceilings. The rooms also feature customizable light and screen settings, as well as hidden cameras built directly into the walls. The studios are large enough to work both for interviews and intimate concert experiences for a small number of attendees. More from The Hollywood Reporter Bob Vylan Lose Visas, Dropped by UTA Following "Death to IDF" Chant at Glastonbury Beyoncé Pauses Show After Prop Car Tilts in the Air Charli XCX Hits Back at "Boomer" Criticism of Autotune Use During Glastonbury Set: "Yawn" 'We want this to be an open house for artists, songwriters or any creator to come in, hang out and create content, connect with their fans or connect with other artists,' Apple Music's top executive Oliver Schusser tells The Hollywood Reporter. 'This is our interpretation of the intersection between technology and the arts.' Aside from the radio studios, the building also has a 4,000-square-foot soundstage that can be used for live performances or screenings, a photo studio, as well as edit bays for content. Fitting to Apple Music's continued push to evangelize spatial audio on the platform, the studio also has a spatial audio mixing room on site. 'We intentionally made it so it could be highly adaptable to any sort of creative,' says Apple Music co-head Rachel Newman. 'It's a blank space on purpose, so that an artist can come in and create whatever they want. Radio was always a front door for us to work closer with artists, and now they'll be able to do so much more. Photography, writers rooms. We wanted the ability to scale and fit into any kind of vision the artist might have.' Apple unveiled the studio Monday as the company celebrates exactly 10 years since Apple Music first launched back in 2015. Schusser says Apple developed the new space as the platform had 'outgrown' its original studios as Apple Music's content has become much more involved with video. The new space, Apple says, is far more accommodating for more types of video content when artists come in for collaborations. Schusser says the studio reflects the company's continued focus on fostering an active listening experience, recalling that when the service launched 10 years ago, his team was 'worried that music in the streaming era would become a commodity. 'There was a fear that customers would just press a button and play music in the background and that'd be it,' Schusser says. 'That's why we focused on Apple Radio. We wanted to build a music service for music fans, a platform where artists could express themselves and showcase their music since there's not many platforms left where they can do that anymore. The studio expands on that.' Natalie Eshaya, head of Apple Music Radio, says the new space offers reflects Apple Music Radio's evolution in the years ahead to further expand beyond audio into wider content. 'The root of it is that traditional radio format, a host speaking to an audience and artists having a way to connect to their fans through radio. But I think where we've evolved things is, it's not just audio, there's a visual element in all the things we do.' With Apple Music Studios unveiled, Apple Music also announced special programming for this week to celebrate 10 years of service. That kicks off this morning with Don't Be Boring: The Birth of Apple Music Radio With Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden, which is airing on Apple Music Radio from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. PST. Apple will also be airing a special on 10 years of Apple Music until 4 p.m. PST. Lowe and Darden will host a live show from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. today as well, featuring an unspecified lineup of artists who've 'shaped the trajectory' of the platform. Separately, starting July 1, Apple Radio will also begin to showcase the 500 all-time most streamed songs on Apple Music, finishing with the top 100 on July 5. Apple Music users will also get access to an all-time replay feature, which will tell them their own individual most streamed songs since they first joined Apple Music. 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Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple Music Head Calls It 'Crazy' Other Streaming Platforms Offer Music for Free
Apple Music's top executive Oliver Schusser weighed in on the cost of music during a keynote interview at the National Music Publisher Association's annual meeting in New York on Wednesday, questioning how competing streaming platforms are still offering free tiers and suggesting it devalues music as an art form. 'I think it's crazy that 20 years in, we still offer music for free,' Schusser, vp Apple Music and international content, told NMPA CEO David Israelite during their discussion Wednesday evening. 'We're the only service that doesn't have a free service. As a company, we look at music as art, and we would never want to give away art for free. More from The Hollywood Reporter The Beach Boys Remember Brian Wilson: "He Was the Soul of Our Sound" R. Kelly Seeks Release From Prison, Claiming Officers Tried to Have Him Killed by Fellow Inmate 'Shrinking' Actress and Music Supervisor Christa Miller on Pulling the Strings Behind the Scenes 'It makes no sense to me,' Schusser continued. 'We don't have a free service, we will not have one, we have no plans for one.' Schusser's comments weren't aimed at any one particular streaming service, though, as he notes, many of Apple Music's competitors offer free ad-supported tiers, including Spotify, the world's largest streaming service. 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. 'Spotify paid out over $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 — the most of any service. Our multi-tier model is a key factor in consistently paying out more than every other retailer or streaming service annually,' Spotify's spokesman said. 'Beyond the dollars the ad-supported tier generates, more than 60 percent of Premium subscribers began as ad-supported users. Bringing in consumers who are interested in music, deepening their engagement, and then presenting them with opportunities to upgrade to a broader suite of Premium features is our blueprint, and it's working.' The price of streaming services is a perpetually hot-button topic in the music industry, as the business is in a constant push to ensure music's value is maximized. 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 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. Elsewhere in the meeting, the NMPA reported that music publishing revenue in the U.S. grew to over $7 billion last year, a 17 percent jump from the year prior. Still, Israelite and NMPA's executive vp and general counsel, Danielle Aguirre, also suggested that growth is getting stifled by challenges like strenuous government regulation (mechanical royalties, for example, are determined by the Copyright Royalty Board, a three-judge panel at the library of congress). The NMPA also pointed toward Spotify and Amazon Music offering their subscriptions as bundles with audiobooks, which has caused songwriters' royalties to drop. Aguirre said Wednesday that 'we lost over $230 million' last year from Spotify's bundles, and that in the first three months since Amazon started bundling, 'we've seen a 40 percent decrease in music revenue from Amazon.' 'Even with that pressure, mechanical revenue still grew last year, but imagine how much stronger that growth could've been if those tactics hadn't been deployed,' Aguirre asked. Spotify's bundling strategy proved controversial in music publishing last year, with the NMPA announcing it filed an FTC complaint against Spotify during last year's annual meeting. The Mechanical Licensing Collective, meanwhile, sued Spotify, though that suit was dismissed earlier this year. Spotify, for its part, reported in its Loud and Clear report back in March that it's paid $4.5 billion to publishers and songwriters over the past two years. Aguirre also pointed toward social media, which she said was 'failing songwriters' over paltry payments. She pointed toward TikTok, which she said drew $18.5 billion in revenue last year, with 85 percent of videos on the platform featuring music. Israelite, for his part, mainly preached a message of solidarity across the music business with the songwriter class Wednesday night. 'Without a healthy songwriter economy, the entire system suffers,' Israelite said. 'I'm calling on recording artists, managers and record labels to stand with non-performing songwriters whenever and wherever they strive.' The meeting included several awards and performances as well. The NMPA showcased Billboard Songwriter Award winners Gracie Abrams, who was named breakthrough songwriter of the year, and Aaron Dessner, the triple threat award-winner, and the two performed a duet of Abrams' hit 'I Love You, I'm Sorry,' which they co-wrote. Also during the evening, Kacey Musgraves was named this year's Icon Award recipient, and beloved country songwriter Rhett Akins was honored as a Non-Performing Songwriter Icon. Akins' son, the country star Thomas Rhett, performed his father's music, and Leon Bridges honored Musgraves with a cover of her song 'Lonely Millionaire.' Musgraves closed the evening as she performed 'The Architect' from her latest album Deeper Well. 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