Apple has approached more than a dozen artists to attempt to negotiate exclusivity deals for its upcoming streaming music service, Bloomberg reports, with the goal of encouraging users to pay for a subscription in order to gain access to content that would be unavailable through competing services.
The list of artists, which includes Taylor Swift and Florence and the Machine, among others, have been in discussions with Apple about deals ranging from limited streaming rights to individual new tracks to closer overall partnerships with the new service.
Music label executives and artists alike have been pushing back in recent months toward free-tiered streaming services such as Spotify, with Taylor Swift notably pulling her entire catalog from that service after it refused to restrict her latest album to only its paying customers.