Apple's music business probed by DOJ, says NY Times

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The US Department of Justice has launched an antitrust probe into Apple's music business, according to the New York Times. Cupertino allegedly used its dominance in the music industry to persuade labels to deny Amazon exclusive access to new music.

It's reported that in March, Amazon asked music labels to give it one day of exclusive rights to sell some songs before they were widely available. In exchange, Amazon offered to include those songs in its "MP3 Daily Deal" promotion.

Apparently, Apple wasn't thrilled about the arrangement and requested that the labels refrain from participating. The company also allegedly punished those who did partake in the deal by withdrawing marketing support on iTunes for the songs involved.

Apple is the largest music retailer in the US, with over a quarter of the total market and two-thirds of the digital market. Apple, Amazon, nor the DOJ has responded to the news.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/39088-apples-music-business-probed-by-doj-says-ny-times.html

 

[TomSEA]

This is gonna get interesting. If this is true, looks like the Treasury Department is going to end up with a HUGE influx of money from an Apple fine.

 

[Didou]

Don't most probes of big companies in the US end up as a slap on the wrist ?

 

[9Nails]

Wont amount to much.

Microsoft's anti-trust case resulted in schools getting some spending cash. But most of the schools bought MS Office with that any ways.

This will probably result in school picking up a few more iPad's. Consumer loses again.

 

[Guest]

Wow Apple always looking to make more money with crappy services! Stop selling products that keep failing and charging ridiculous prices for them! The iPad was the worst development yet and all these fan boys are buying them up like its so good to have and not true at all. No point in wasting $1 on a song when everything is available in better quality then iTunes for free and you can get it before release. Apple knows competition will beat there inflated prices and lose tons of business so they are fighting everyone out of the market.

 

[Didou]

No point in wasting $1 on a song when everything is available in better quality then iTunes for free and you can get it before release.

Yes that's completely legal. Come back when you have actual arguments & stop trolling.

 

[windmill007]

so true guest apples refusal of flash on ipad was a big mistake and I agree there prices are way inflated. Yeah I think anything less than 320k VBR mp3 are usless and sound crappy. $1 a song is still way to much IMO.

 

[geomashable]

Apple is going to gain more money with new stragegies