What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where Katy Perry’s Olympic anthem is exclusive to Apple Music yet freely available to stream on YouTube/Vevo?

This is why the music industry is losing its battle with YouTube and the government, it’s a self-dealing only for cash enterprise that puts the fan last. No wonder the fans don’t care.

Katy’s team could have said NO to Apple, which is acting more and more like a parody of Engulf & Devour from that Mel Brooks movie only with less humor and even less success.

And then there’s inane Apple proposal to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board for a minimum publishing rate on streams which in reality is just an underhanded shot at Spotify’s free tier, one news outlets sussed out immediately.

WHERE ARE YOU TIM COOK???

Apple’s brand is built on loyalty, there must be belief. Meanwhile, Jimmy Iovine has single-handedly put a dent in your image, turning so many off to your company when you have no hit product in the marketplace and you must do your best to shore up and burnish your image.

There’s been one misstep after another since Apple Music has been launched, whether it be pushing U2’s lame new album upon everybody or screwing up users’ iTunes library. You changed all the art on mine, which I spent dozens of hours getting right. I want my time back, but no one cares about me, you’re just busy playing insider footsie with an enterprise with an image so bad its customers had no problem stealing its wares willy-nilly, yes, I’m talking about you, recorded music industry.

Exclusives are not fan-friendly.

But since when did the music business care about the fan, especially when money is involved? Hell, acts would rather let scalpers reap the upside of underpriced tickets than raise the prices to fair market value, which would kill bots overnight. But no, not in the music business, where a fake image is everything.

And then there’s the double-dealing. Katy’s worried about being Kanye, keeping his new album on Tidal such that no one heard it. So she puts it on YouTube/Vevo. The truth is no one wants to be left out, no one wants their music to go unheard, NO ONE wants to put it behind a paywall. Yet we keep hearing from the industry that YouTube is the enemy???

And how does Apple Music’s exclusive strategy even work when the tracks are available elsewhere? Why should someone sign up for the streaming service? As for sales… If you think sales still matter you don’t have a Netflix account, and kids do, they just use their parents’ password and steal what is unavailable. The movie industry has its head even further up its ass than the music business.

Let the best streaming service win.

And right now, even the “New York Times” believes the Apple Music interface is lame. How about doing some work on the underlying product instead of the penumbra? It’d be like saying your laptop case is made of gold but your operating system is riddled with bugs.

Greedy bastards selling out for a buck, employing subterfuge behind an opaque scrim.

Same as it ever was.

And the public knows it.

“Apple, in Seeming Jab at Spotify, Proposes Simpler Songwriting Royalties”

“Spotify and Apple Music: The Goth vs. the Stoner”