Apple’s approach to music has always been from a “reseller” perspective, in which they sell ready-made songs on iTunes or stream it via Apple Music. This is a very typical approach for pretty much all music streaming services we’re seeing today, but it looks like Apple wants a bigger slice of the pie.
According to a report from Music Business Worldwide, it looks like Apple is getting into the music publishing game where it will be led by Elena Segal, who was previously Apple’s Legal Director of iTunes International. Her new role will make her Apple Music’s Global Director of Music Publishing.
For those unfamiliar with what music publishing is about, basically the music industry is split into two: the record labels and the publishers. Labels tend to handle the actual artists, while publishers will deal with who writes the songs, such as lyricists, composers, and so on. According to the report, Apple’s music publishing division will include Operations, Commercial, Publisher Relations, and A&R (which is essentially the scouting of talent).
With Apple creating their own music publishing division, this means that they can sign songwriters and composers in which any music that they license out has the potential to bring in revenue via royalties. This means that Apple no longer needs to rely on Apple Music subscriptions in order to generate revenue on the music front.
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