Apple Music is signing exclusivity deals with musicians, paying for music videos, giving artists a huge platform in return, while Spotify continues to grow in power and influence. But where does this leave record labels, and are they being phased out of the process?

The deal will be available to new or existing customers from 1 September

Universal Music Group has reportedly moved to ban the practice

Epic Records found a loophole in the Billboard 200 streaming rules

Will the streaming services unite?

The music streaming service continues rapid growth in user numbers but losses continue to mount

Other, smaller players will eventually have to leave the streaming music business, according to one of Spotify's most senior executives

Connect was a major part of the Apple Music launch, and was supposed to let people follow posts from their favourite artists – but it is being demoted, a year later

When big acts attack the funding model of record companies what they are doing, whether they know it or not, is pulling up the ladder behind them

The rapper had previously insisted that he would never put the album on the streaming services

The music service must have seen meme potential a-plenty

The two companies have been running tests to integrate the two platforms since early December

The app is currently in beta, though it has all of the features of the versions for Apple’s platforms

Apple's new streaming service is still a long way behind Spotify, its main competitor

Those that signed up and didn’t turn off auto-renewals will begin getting charged from the beginning of next month — and you might want to change some settings, even if you're sticking around

The subscription model is taking over from downloads, but there is still the problem of getting music fans to pay