{"id":5201,"date":"2015-05-06T07:28:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/05\/06\/apple-pushing-music-labels-to-kill-free-spotify-streaming\/"},"modified":"2015-05-06T07:28:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:28:24","slug":"apple-pushing-music-labels-to-kill-free-spotify-streaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2015\/05\/06\/apple-pushing-music-labels-to-kill-free-spotify-streaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple pushing music labels to kill free Spotify streaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/f\/fa\/Apple_logo_black.svg\/170px-Apple_logo_black.svg.png\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade  Commission are looking closely into Apple\u2019s business practices in  relation to its upcoming music streaming service, according to multiple  sources. The Verge has learned that Apple has been pushing major  music labels to force streaming services like Spotify to abandon their  free tiers, which will dramatically reduce the competition for Apple\u2019s  upcoming offering. DOJ officials have already interviewed high-ranking  music industry executives about Apple\u2019s business habits, but it appears  the FTC has taken the lead in recent weeks.  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Apple has been using its considerable  power in the music industry to stop the music labels from renewing  Spotify\u2019s license to stream music through its free tier. Spotify  currently has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2015\/1\/12\/7531261\/spotify-hits-15-million-paid-subscribers-60-million-listeners\">60 million listeners<\/a>, but only 15 million of them are paid users. Getting the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/recode.net\/2015\/03\/06\/big-music-labels-want-to-make-free-music-hard-to-get-and-apple-says-theyre-right\/\" target=\"_blank\">music labels to kill the freemium tiers<\/a> from Spotify and others could put Apple in prime position to grab a  large swath of new users when it launches its own streaming service,  which is widely expected to feature a considerable amount of exclusive  content. &#8220;All the way up to Tim Cook, these guys are cutthroat,&#8221; one  music industry source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sources also indicated that Apple offered  to pay YouTube\u2019s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the  label stopped allowing its songs on YouTube. Apple is seemingly trying  to clear a path before its streaming service launches, which is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2015\/2\/13\/8035435\/apple-premium-music-service-launching-summer\">expected<\/a> to debut at WWDC in June. If Apple convinces the labels to stop  licensing freemium services from Spotify and YouTube, it could take out a  significant portion of business from its two largest music competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Apple has an antitrust monitor on its campus, courtesy of the DOJ after Apple was found guilty in an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/7\/16\/5909485\/apple-to-pay-450-million-in-ebooks-antitrust-suit-with-us-states\">ebook antitrust case<\/a> last year (Apple is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/11\/21\/7262401\/apple-ebook-price-fixing-settlement-receives-final-approval\">appealing<\/a> the decision), but it&#8217;s  not clear if that monitor is involved in this latest situation. The DOJ  and the FTC aren&#8217;t the only entity looking into Apple\u2019s dealings with  the music industry, either. According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2015\/04\/01\/competition-commission-probing-music-streaming-services\/\">New York Post<\/a>,  Apple is being probed by the European Union\u2019s Competition Commission to  find out if the company is working with the labels to rid the industry  of freemium services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Apple declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Source: CMU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are looking closely into Apple\u2019s business&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}