Image Credit: Apple Music

The head of music publishing at Apple Music says the subscription-only music streaming service will never have an ad-supported model.

“We don’t think that an ad-supported service can generate enough revenue to support a healthy overall ecosystem. And it would also really go against our fundamental values on privacy,” said Apple Music’s head of music publishing Elena Segal at the UK Government hearing on the economics of music streaming.

Some music streaming services such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Deezer have ad-supported free tiers, that can be limited in a number of areas, such as on-demand playback, number of track skips, devices, offline playback and sound quality. Others services such as Apple Music and TIDAL do not have free options, besides free trials. As a result, overall revenue per stream is usually higher on subscription-only services.

Apple Music is free for three months, then individual accounts are $9.99 per month for access to 70 million ad-free songs, with offline and exclusive playlists available to paying subscribers.