Apple has reportedly inked in the services of Drake and Pharrell Williams for its Apple Music streaming service. But the company is trying to score a major coup by locking in the exclusive rights to Kanye West’s forthcoming new album, Swish.
Reports Buzzfeed:
Sources familiar with Apple’s new music-streaming service tell BuzzFeed News that when the company rolls Apple Music out to the public, it will indeed do so with limited or “windowed” exclusives from some big-name artists. And one artist it’s been pursuing aggressively with the help of Beats Music co-founder Jimmy Iovine — now an Apple employee following the company’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics last year — is Kanye West.
Apple is particularly keen on an exclusive from West’s forthcoming album, currently — but not definitively titled “Swish”. Sources say the company has been talking to him about it for some time, but hasn’t yet been able to finalize a deal, and negotiations between West and Iovine continue.
Knowing how Yeezy is all about getting as many people his music as fast and widely as humanly possible, so long as they pay, we’re guessing keeping the album in only one place is a tough sell.
Also, Jay Z will clearly be issuing a severe side eye to the Chicago rapper/producer/designer since West is one of the highly touted “owners” of TIDAL.
Needless to say it will be interesting how this all plays out.
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Photo: WENN
