Apple Not Killing Spotify Softly?

Have we seen this before over the ‘arrangements’ Apple made with e-book publishers in the recent years?

Apple, the company name that originally agreed to not operate in the same business as the Beatles, sic. music, will be launching its own music service in June 2015. Obviously the biggest competitor in this field is Spotify, those dastardly people who have actually been giving stuff away for free since 2008. Having recently splurged $3 billion on Beats Music, Apple’s fruits will have to find a way to repay their poor shareholders of course, so remember them for a moment.

It is reported Apple have been urging music labels not to re-new their licensing deals with ‘free, give-away’ operations like Spotify, no doubt because, hey, we can pay you more. In exchange for a controlling stake of the market place obviously.

In the gun sights are the 45 million Spotify’s 60 million users who use the free service. I guess kill free services and Apple hope to pick up at least some of those who are prepared to pay – no doubt these will predominately iPhone and iPad users, having been already trapped in the walled orchard.

OK, it looks like Apple’s product might be cheaper, though how long that would last with no competition is another matter, rumoured to be only £7.99 /month, £2 cheaper than Spotify.

The Verge reports Apple is allegedly going about its business in a “cutthroat” manner according to a music industry insider. Apple is also believed to be encouraging music labels to not license its music to Google’s YouTube Music Key – another competitor in the market.

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The Department of Justice and the Federal Trading Commission is currently investigating the claims to see whether Apple is playing by the rules or using bully boy practices.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/media/1000722/apples-cutthroat-plan-to-kill-off-spotify

The music industry has made few friends through its relentless push of copyright, the proceeds however often going to the big music corporations rather than musicians. One has to wonder whether corps like Apple will support the indie creators more or less than new agile internet companies like Spotify. Once this market option closes, the door is very unlikely to re-open.