Apple Urging Music Labels to Stop Licensing Free Songs on Spotify and YouTube

[RogerWilco]

I think the biggest shift is in the way artists/composers are being turned into product shills if they expect to earn any money from their work. Their music is treated as a throwaway by these cynical, gangsta players, and Apple is right there.

"At the intersection of liberal arts and technology" LOL -- almost as funny as "Do no evil".

 

[KALLT]

That would be a dumb and illegal (price fixing) thing to do. Hopefully it’s just a rumour.

 

[Bot4Hire]

i call bs on this report. this is not something apple will ever do. they will compete with a superior product and service as they always do. if spotify is free or not it won't help them apple will win this war.

Because they never did anything like this with books.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

i call bs on this report. this is not something apple will ever do. they will compete with a superior product and service as they always do. if spotify is free or not it won't help them apple will win this war.

Not really. European Union > Apple.

DOJ > Apple. When the law enforcement or legal agencies from the U.S or European Union smell unethical or illegal play from Apple, they will bring the hammer down on your beloved Timmy Cook.

The man needs to go out the window. NOW.

It goes to show that Apple IS afraid of Spotify. If they were confident in their Beats acquisition, they wouldn't need to make this kind of move.

They need to, in Michael Jackson's words, " Beat it ".

 

[gotluck]

Oh how lovely, sounds great for the consumer

 

[autrefois]

If this rumor is true, I say good for Apple. Why is nobody thinking of poor Apple, with only $150+ billion in cash laying around? Eliminating free and freemium music would take money away from students and poor and middle class families and finally put it where it belongs, in the hands of Apple.

 

[Merode]

Here's to the crazy ones..

 

[Rogifan]

Disgusting that Apple is hindering its competitors, not by competing but by simply using its power as the biggest company in the world.

Who is Apple hindering? I have an iPhone but am a paying Spotify customer with no intentions to cancel. For all we know it could be competing services spreading rumors because they're afraid of Apple's entry into this space.

 

[Carmenia83]

So I suppose iTunes Radio is dead in iOS 9?

 

[Piggie]

Dear Apple Please F-Off and stop trying to use money to spoil things for others.

Are you not rich enough, without ruining new areas people enjoy and trying to exert your control over them.

 

[Adamb10]

If you can't beat them, eliminate them with lawyers.

Here's an idea Apple: How about making a better service that people will want to pay for? All you're doing is taking people back to pirating music.

 

[ChinaRye]

While I think everyone should pay for streaming music services, I don't like the idea of a big corporation bullying smaller companies because they have a similar service coming out and want a leg up.

 

[numlock]

They want to stop fermium music? What about iTunes Radio? In fact what about radio in general?

If you think that $0.001 per play per person is too little to pay for music, if you divide the total royalties paid by radio by the total amount of hours listened to the radio (that's number of people who listen to the radio x average hours they listen), then divide that by the average number of songs per hour, will you get much different than that? Don't forget that commercial radio stations also pay license fees and for on air personalities.

i would be happy if asking siri to launch music it wouldnt launch that stupid itunes radio.

 

[Codyak]

The people who are forced out of the free version won't switch to Apple, they'll just go back to pirating.

 

[2457282]

Call me old fashioned, but I would rather just own my music.

Me too. I own all of my music. But I also listen to radio/streaming services to hear new music and then bu what I like.

There has always been "free," ad-supported music since the radio was invented. I don't see that going away. I have never been a fan of subscription services including XM radio. For those that like to pay a monthly fee to get something without ads, I say go for it. For me that is why I buy my own stuff.

I have a hard time believing that Apple would try to eliminate the ad-supported market. But I do get them trying to find a balance where the cost of a subscription is not prohibitive. $7 like netflix for movies seems reasonable. $14 like HBO seems too high and will probably keep a lot of people from joining.

Negotiating favorable terms is what Apple does, but I hope they don't really try to eliminate the ad-supported option, because that seems wrong.

 

[ChrisCW11]

i call bs on this report. this is not something apple will ever do. they will compete with a superior product and service as they always do. if spotify is free or not it won't help them apple will win this war.

Lol, keep basking in the rays of Apple's perception filter. If you don't think that Apple is wheeling and dealing in the background to secure their walled garden platform with content providers then you have clearly drank the Kool-aid.

 

[nzcatfood]

Of course, Apple like to iterate and iterate towards perfection in everything they do ... including screwing every last dime out of their customers. Love their products but hate their business practices. Would hate to see all music/covers removed from YouTube.

 

[ECJ]

I'd have to see more proof that this is Apple's goal. This is still a rumor. Plus who does this help if this rumor is true? Artists, Apple, Tidal and a few others.

Let me get some popcorn and take a seat. This is going to be good. lol.

 

[Dayv]

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”

--Hunter S. Thompson

 

[MattSeven]

I hope this is a bad rumor. Apple should learn from Microsoft's path. You can't use these kinds of business practices to stay high. If the creative process is leading the way, people will respond: that's what Apple has proven again and again. The idea that it would fall backward into this stuff is a bad sign.

 

[KrakaJap]

They're asking their competitors to give up their only leverage in the market so that their own service can score big under the guise of "fair competition"? Big surprise there :/ Next round will be lawsuits over patents to force some hands. 'tis the way of business.

 

[saudor]

Call me new fashioned, but I rather listen to unlimited music for half the price of an album with spotlight student pricing per month. $60 a year.

But not everyone is blessed with lots of cheap U.S. data. Plus some of us have underground subways to deal with aka no signal

 

[Lictor]

Call me old fashioned, but I would rather just own my music.

You never owned music, ever. Music is like software, what you own is a licence to the content of a support. That licence can prohibit you from doing stuff you would do if you really owned the music... A lot of things people do with the music they "own" is actually illegal, it's just that the music industry never bothered to attack them...

 

[oneMadRssn]

Call me new fashioned, but I rather listen to unlimited music for half the price of an album with spotlight student pricing per month. $60 a year.

And what are you doing to do if Spotify gets rid of the student pricing, triples their regular subscription cost, and doesn't let you export your playlists, and other metadata? Or when a competitor signs your favorite band as an exclusive? None of that is unlikely...

Maybe that stuff doesn't matter to do, but besides the actual music files, I see value in my playlists and my playcounts / ratings and having every artists I want all in one place with no restrictions. I wouldn't want any of that, including the music files, to be subject the whims of a company and their cloud.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

A lot of moving parts here. Apple is the biggest music SELLER, but they are nothing in the streaming world. Music labels have already been on the record saying they prefer paid streaming over advertising supported streaming or paid media. Label also have a love/hate relationship with Apple to the point they had to buy Beats to buy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

So while DOJ may be snooping around, that's a far cry from them having enough evidence to move forward with a slam dunk case -- something they would need as high profile as this would be.

I realize compelling evidence isn't something needed before MR readers become enraged, but it is something DOJ needs before it can get a conviction or settlement agreement.

Apple urging labels to go in the direction the labels already want to go in... I need more data points.