Apple Music makes inroads into country music with new Nashville team

In a bid to capture one of the more neglected genres in music streaming — country — Apple has announced plans to set up a new team at the epicenter of the style, Nashville.

The team is being led by Jay Liepis, who previously served as the company's head of U.S. and artist relations for iTunes, Apple informed Variety. Indeed it said the Nashville effort is "dedicated to being more involved with artists, managers, songwriters and the label community at large."

An office will open later this year, competing with ones already in the city that belong to Spotify and Amazon Music. Leipis has reportedly been involved in country efforts before, for example helping to secure an exclusive track by Jason Aldean.

Apple Music has so far placed a strong focus on rap, hip-hop, and R&B, which may be paying off with hits like the latest J. Cole and Weeknd releases.

At the same time, country music has proved extremely popular without that extra support. Apple said that streams in the genre grew 66 percent in 2017, and that its "Pure Country" radio station is actually its second-most popular, up 35 percent. Among curated playlists, A-List Country has surged 151 percent to third place.

The genre is the most popular format on conventional radio, but its fans have been slow to flock to streaming. Last year it represented just 6 percent of on-demand streams — well distant of the 19.3 percent for rock and 22 percent for hip-hop.

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9 Comments

randominternetperson

said about 5 years ago

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Hank Williams isn't one of the top 100 country artists in terms of streaming.

Folio

said about 5 years ago

BAML estimate Apple Music $4B revenue in 2020, from $1.7B 2018E. ITunes Store $4.9 B New report based on survey of over 2000 in US suggests long runway for Apple Music

rogifan_new

said about 5 years ago

Can Apple do the same thing for rock and indie music?

redraider11

said about 5 years ago

Hahaha Nashville Country is an oxymoron. If you want real country music then try some red dirt Texas country, not that watered down pop “country” crap that Nashville puts out.

holyone

said about 5 years ago

redraider11 said:

Hahaha Nashville Country is an oxymoron. If you want real country music then try some red dirt Texas country, not that watered down pop “country” crap that Nashville puts out.

Ouch, isn't Tim (not Cook) from Nash ? He's OK no? in any event I think the evolution of music has left many bodies in its wake, as a hole I think of all the genres, hip hop is the only one to have camulatively evolved,suvived and remained relevant whilst still keeping much of its "goodness" over the years, no other kind of misic can claim high quality out put having gone through as dramatic a change as hip hop has over the years, save for Taylor who Addmitedly is very pop there'd probably be no remnets of country remaining in these dark times we find our selves in.