‘Apple tries to hinder competing streaming services’

Apple is trying to make life impossible for competitors for its upcoming music streaming service. That reports The Verge. Apple would pressure record companies to stop licensing free streaming services.

This includes the free version of Spotify, which with 45 million listeners is a lot more popular than Spotify Premium, which has 15 million subscribers. The idea is that if the free, ad-supported version of Spotify becomes less attractive than Apple’s payment service due to the lack of artists, that would save a lot of competition. That reports The Verge.

In addition, Apple would have offered record company Universal Music Group to give compensation if that company removes its music from YouTube. That fee would be equal to the amount Universal currently receives from Google for its music on the video service. Apple is likely to announce its new music streaming service, based on that of acquired Beats, at its WWDC conference later this year.

According to The Verge, the US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into Apple’s practices. The European Commission has already done so, the New York Post reported last month. Apple previously misbehaved in negotiations with e-book publishers, thwarting competitors by illegal price fixing. That case was eventually settled.