“While Apple was preparing a splashy introduction for a new service that would stream music over the Internet for a fee, the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut were quietly investigating the Silicon Valley giant’s negotiations with music companies in search of potential antitrust violations,” Brian X. Chen and Ben Sisario reports for The New York Times. “The attorneys general wanted to know whether Apple pressured the music labels — or whether the labels conspired with Apple and one another — to withdraw support for popular ‘freemium’ services offered by companies like Spotify in favor of Apple’s paid music subscriptions.”
“Universal Music Group on Tuesday confirmed it was cooperating with the industrywide investigation, a continuing effort led by the attorney general of New York, Eric T. Schneiderman, and the attorney general of Connecticut, George Jepsen,” Chen and Sisario reports. “The first written response to the antitrust inquiry came from Universal Music Group a day earlier when the company’s legal firm, Hunton & Williams, sent a letter to the attorneys general. The letter said Universal Music Group had no agreements with Apple or music entities like Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group that would impede the availability of free or ad-supported services.”
“This is the second time both Mr. Schneiderman and Mr. Jepsen have pursued Apple on antitrust grounds,” Chen and Sisario reports. “In 2013, a federal judge said Apple violated antitrust law by colluding with book publishers to raise e-book prices above Amazon’s standard $9.99 pricing for digital books, after the publishers settled.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Witch-hunt: The sequel.
SEE ALSO:
Rival music services claim Apple’s App Store pricing is anticompetitive – May 7, 2015
EU regulators already probing Apple’s music streaming plans in Europe – April 2, 2015
Seriously, who *didn’t* see this coming? With Apple owning Beats, it was even more a certainty than with e-books.
Most of us here have been Apple fans since it was on the ropes. It is quite difficult for us to change our mindset about Apple from a small underdog to the biggest company in the world.
The problem is, the biggest company will always be under a microscope. Whatever they do affects way too many people.
The same DAs are flush from their success with the ‘publisher’ fiasco. The law is a ass.
The ebook was brought to us courtesy of the U.S. DOJ, these turds and numerous other states joined in when they smelled money.
I’m a NYer. Cuomo is a jerk. He just approved pot use for medicinal purposes. but its so damn strict. that needs a realistic revamp .He needs to let up.Of course I saw this coming.
Instead of showing reverence, national pride and appreciation for America’s oracle of tech innovation and excellence in leading the world’s consumer electronics and computers markets with quality products and impecable ethics, the spectoval seekers of “gotcha yellow journalism and corrupt politicians would rather sroke their own incompetence and ignorance with shameful unfounded, manufactured allegations.
Shame on us for losing all sense of justice and integrity.
“spectoval seekers” = skeptical seekers
Damn auto correct…
Should be ‘spectacle seekers’
They really should allow people to edit their comments for cases like this.. 😛 In the meantime though, it’s amusing..
Saying that a so called freemium service typically starts free and is supported financially by advertising is only part of the equation. Another part of it is getting those who use the freemium service to buy from the advertisers who are always saying BUY BUY BUY to consumer, to the point where the repetition is intrusive, almost like
americanChinese water torture. Another part of the equation is providing a pittance for the actual music just barely enough for the artist to breathe, it’s almost likeChineseamerican water board torture. It’s no surprise that the record labels are that arguing free services do not generate enough money and they give consumers no incentive to pay for music. Why should they, the advertisers take take take, offering very little in return.The consumer and producers are no longer the respected clients and customers they are the products. It certainly mimics the new values of their host nation, the wee people are no longer being serviced by their government, they are servicing their government.
MDN put up this great idea that “The U.S. federal government should adhere to the U.S. Constitution.” It’s a great idea but face it, citizens of the free and civilized world, the US government is not only way off the constitutional pact it’s going after any and all perceived threats, externally that’s not hard to see, being are at war for roughly 80% of their history on a yearly basis and internally, well they have Apple in their sights and they aim to fire.
Fortunately for Apple that they are using the “aim for Bin Laden hit Saddam Hussein” guidance system and Apple has all the high and moral ground, of course for those of you who are believers, the new global chant is “God Bless the Free and Civilized World.”
There’s always some bureaucrat with nothing better to do who wants to interfere with commerce and free enterprise.