Apple Music To Transform Into Video Streaming Provider, Too?

According to a report recently published by Bloomberg, record industry bigwig Jimmy Iovine apparently is planning some ambitious things for Apple Music. The talk is that possibly months or years from now, Apple’s music streaming service will turn itself into a video streaming service provider as well. 

And Iovine is reportedly already lining up some potential original content -- like a follow up to R. Kelly’s YouTube series. Other projects lined up by record industry guru include a biographical series that focuses on the life and career of rap legend Dr. Dre, as well as other ideas Iovine has collaborated with producer Brian Grazer (of A Beautiful Mind fame) and J.J. Abrams (who basically needs no introduction). 

On related news, a report was also published on Billboard this week, claiming that Sean Combs’ new documentary project “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” will be distributed exclusively by way of Apple Music beginning on June 25th of this year. The documentary film chronicles the rap superstar’s rise in the music industry more than a decade ago, and it actually made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival currently being held in New York City this week. 

As expected, Apple has remained mum on the topic, appearing to keep its cards to itself and biding its time. But the subject should interest both consumers and industry watchers alike. In this day and age, people are simply consuming more media content by way of their mobile devices, and even though Apple was a bit late to the music streaming party, it did well enough to establish its brand amidst existing giants like Spotify and Pandora. Branching into video streaming seems like the logical next move. And it certainly will not hurt if Apple Music takes it slow on the onset, like offering shorter content such as a Carpool Karaoke series based on that popular segment from The Late Late Show with James Corden. By the way, the first episode features contemporary R&B stars John Legend and Alicia Keys and is expected to be released some time later this year.

Apple has long veered away from offering content, choosing instead to sell other artists’ music, TV shows, and movies. But considering how the media content has changed in the last year or so (with Netflix and Amazon producing monster hits on TV, and rival tech firms Google and Facebook all making aggressive efforts to enter into the digital content business), Apple may have realized it was time to open its mind for just a bit.