In a week of crucial discussions about windowing and ‘hold-outs’ on streaming services, here’s some intriguing news.
Switched-on MBW readers have tipped us off this morning that Ministry Of Sound releases, including albums from London Grammar, Example and Wretch 32 (pictured), are now on Apple Music.
This indicates that some kind of licensing deal has finally been struck between the two parties – but you streaming types should prob keep the champagne on ice for now.
As far as MBW can see, Apple Music’s Ministry selection includes a handful of back catalogue albums and frontline singles, but there’s no Ministry branding presence – or any of its all-important compilations.
In fact, it’s almost a like-for-like mirror of Ministry’s limited availability on Spotify, which CEO Lohan Presencer has likened to a “watching brief” experiment.
Still, it’s progress: Ministry, the UK’s fourth biggest record company, has held its releases off Apple Music since the service launched on June 30.
In July, Ministry CEO Lohan Presencer told MBW that the independent firm was looking to reach a deal with the platform – but on its own particular terms.
Ministry’s recorded music business is still predominantly track/download and compilation-driven, which leaves the world of playlists and tiny per-stream payments less appealing than they are to labels with a vast catalogues of albums.
“We believe there are mechanisms that can work for us [on Apple Music] that don’t disadvantage them; we’re not asking for anything more than anybody else is getting,” Presencer told us in July.
“We’re still waiting to hear back, and we’d like things to speed up a bit.”
Five months on, and things have, finally, sped up a bit – although perhaps not to the extent Apple would like.
Ministry launched its own streaming app on Android and iOS last month, offering users a range of curated music channels to match users’ moods, as well as exclusive on-demand mixes from famous DJs.
A Ministry page also appeared on Deezer – a company about whom Prescencer has had plenty to say about in the past…
The exec played down the appearance of his brand on the French Spotify rival’s app, telling MBW: “It’s a label page which profiles our repertoire and has a small selection of playlists. To portray it as anything more than that is rather overstating the case.”
Ministry took years to put any of its catalogue on Spotify after a legal fall-out over certain playlists on the Swedish service which appeared to exactly match the running order of Ministry compilations.Music Business Worldwide
