Apple Music head Jimmy Iovine this week sat down with Music Business Worldwide for a new wide-ranging interview, touching on topics such as Spotify’s free tier, exclusivity deals, and more. While Iovine has given more than his fair share of interviews in the past, this one contains a few interesting comments…

Right off the bat, Iovine was asked to explain some of the biggest issues he has with the current streaming industry. Iovine explained that right now in the music industry, there’s a major problem of “free in music streaming.”

The Apple executive noted that in order to solve this problem, free music tiers have to become more restricted, while the paid services have to get better. Iovine went on to explain that many artists no longer see the music industry as a source of revenue, but are rather shifting focus towards promotion with tours and merchandise.

Iovnie's quest against free streaming services didn’t stop there, though. When asked about how Apple works to make Apple Music different from free services, he explained video is becoming a central part of the music experience, specifically saying that the show Dr. Dre is working on for Apple Music “is really gonna move the needle.”

Furthermore, Iovine explained that if Apple Music offered a free tier, it would have over 400 million users.

Source: 9to5mac