Apple Music signs deal with Universal, Sony and Warner

Apple Music has reportedly signed a multi-year deal with several of the world's largest record labels including Universal and Sony.

According to Financial Times, the new deal was signed in "recent months" and includes Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music. That means licensing is covered for several massive artists including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce, and Ed Sheeran.

According to reports, the deal does not include any provisions for bundling Apple Music with any other service. Reports towards the end of last year suggested that Apple may be planning to bundle services like News+ and TV+ with its more popular Apple Music. The report claims such a deal may be months away.

The news comes in wake of recent reports suggesting that Apple Music pays significantly more per stream than any other major streaming service. From that report:

New figures from The Trichordist suggest that Apple Music offers the best value to artists per stream compared to its competitors.

According to their 2019-2020 Streaming Price Bible:

Apple Music is again the best value per stream accounting for nearly 25% of all streaming revenue on only 6% of consumption. Spotify generates the most overall revenue of any streamer (no surprise) at 44% of all streaming revenue on 22% of consumption. As stated before, and which can not be overstated enough, You Tube's Content ID is the major issue limiting growth contributing only 6% of revenues on over half of all streams, at 51% of total consumption. That's a staggering statistic.

Apple Music reportedly has over 60 million subscribers on the platform.