There are rumors that Apple could be considering launching a new music streaming service based on Beats Music that they had acquired last year. The service is said to be possibly announced at WWDC 2015 later this year, but it seems that even before it has launched, it has caused quite a stir amongst US regulators.
According to a report from the New York Post, word has it that the FTC and the DoJ are reportedly talking to music executives to determine whether or not they should launch a wider antitrust review of the Cupertino company’s business practices. Interestingly enough this follows an earlier report which suggested that the EU might also want to investigate Apple for alleged antitrust violations.
The concern in the US is the same as the one in Europe where some are worried that Apple could abuse their dominance to gain exclusive deals with record labels and might even convince them to not license songs out to competitors. Like we said before this is an interesting take considering that there were reports that Apple’s influence in the music industry is waning, especially when they were unable to negotiate for lower rates with the labels.
Some have speculated that Apple’s competitors could be using regulators as a way to fight against the company, something that we’re sure regulators can’t be too pleased about if it were true.
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