Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine says streaming services are too similar: "Sooner or later, something's got to give"

Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine says that streaming services need to diversify to survive, believing they are currently too similar in their approach. 

Iovine, who co-founded Interscope Records and produced albums for Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks and US before joining Apple, told the BBC that streaming platforms will need to interact better with their audience and offer something more than the same catalogue of music to users. 

"The streaming services are all charging $9.99 and everyone has the same music and it's really nice," he said. "You get whatever song you want, you get your playlists - but there's got to be more interaction between the artist and the audience.

"Sooner or later, something's got to give. Netflix [is] spending $6bn (£4.2bn) a year on original content. They have a unique catalogue and they charge you $10.99."

Apple Music has in past offered albums exclusively on the platform, including Drake's Views and Frank Ocean's Blonde. It also recently launched its own series of Carpool Karaoke and its Beats 1 radio station, which regularly gets exclusive single premieres. 

Meanwhile, earlier this month Spotify released its first ever original song, a collaboration between Nina Nesbitt, Sasha Sloane and Charlotte Lawrence called Psychopath, suggesting it may have ambitions to become a virtual record label. 

Iovine also responded to rumours that Apple Music will be phasing out its iTunes service as music downloading continues to decline, saying there was no set date but, "if I'm honest, it's when people stop buying. It's very simple."

Iovine was speaking as the US recording industry revealed its revenues had risen 16.5% to $8.7bn (£6.2bn) in 2017, with streaming contributing two-thirds of the total. In the UK, streaming now accounts for over half (50.4%) of UK music consumption, and last December the market witnessed a new landmark of 1.5 billion audio streams in a single week.

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