Apple Music’s exclusive playlist deal with popular music label and nightclub owner Ministry of Sound has expired. A new report notes that the full set of Ministry of Sound playlists are now available on rival streaming music services like Spotify.
Apple Music’s deal with Ministry of Sound was announced a little over a year ago. Apple debuted its first Ministry of Sound exclusive playlist on October 4, 2018.
“All Ministry of Sound playlists and the monthly Ministry Mix – only on Apple Music,” associated literature noted at the time. At the time Ministry of Sound stripped its artwork and tracks from its Spotify playlists. However, it didn’t delete the channels altogether, leaving an opening for restoring them after the exclusive partnership with Apple ended.
As the website Music Alley notes:
“A full set of Ministry of Sound playlists appears to be back up and running on Spotify, including flagships like Dance Nation and R&B Mixtape, as well as the 2020 incarnation of the label’s ‘The Annual’ compilation.”
The playlists are also available on Deezer (and possibly others). The Annual 2020 additionally has a YouTube playlist.
Apple vs. Spotify playlist exclusives
Exclusives are a big deal in the world of subscription service, which largely offer the same content. However, with content at such a premium, maybe Apple didn’t feel it was worth whatever it was being asked to pay for the Ministry of Sound playlists. Or perhaps the label simply wanted the greater exposure it would get from being available in as many places as possible.
In Spotify’s latest quarterly earnings it revealed that it is growing considerably faster than Apple Music. “We continue to feel very good about our competitive position in the market,” Spotify said. “Relative to Apple, the publicly available data shows that we are adding roughly twice as many subscribers per month as they are. Additionally, we believe that our monthly engagement is roughly 2x as high and our churn is at half the rate.”
Are you an Apple Music or Spotify subscriber? How big a deal are exclusives for you? Let us know in the comments below.
