As reported by the New York Times, Apple's new music service (which was introduced, but not yet released) and record companies are already the target of investigations in both New York and Connecticut, which aim to find some kind of antitrust violation in negotiations between Apple and record companies .
According to the newspaper, attorneys general of the two states (Eric Schneiderman and George Jepsen) want to know if Apple put pressure on record companies or vice versa so that Apple Music does not support any type of model. "Freemium", as in the competing service Spotify (which offers a free model supported by advertising).
Eric Schneiderman, New York State Attorney GeneralUniversal Music Group (UMG) was the first to speak out, sending a letter to prosecutors stating that it has not entered into agreements with Apple or other record companies to prevent the availability of free and / or ad-supported services.
Interestingly, this is the second time that both prosecutors have investigated Ma involving alleged antitrust actions. The first involved the ebook market and ended up with Apple being found guilty.
Of course, investigations like this need to be done, especially in a market as competitive as this. However, I believe that offering or not a model freemium The service is an Apple decision that simply should not be taken this way.
As we have already shown here on the website, other services such as Google Play Music, Tidal and Amazon Prime Music also do not offer free streaming of music. Are all of these companies and the deals being promoted with the record companies being investigated, too?
(via AppleInsider)
