Seriously, Is this Really The Government's Job to Micromanage This Stuff?
The FTC is looking into the Apple music service:
the FTC has begun looking into Cupertino's "treatment of rival streaming music apps" to make sure it's not violating any antitrust law. See, iTunes also offers those competitor apps for download, and Apple gets a 30 percent cut per subscription paid through the program. That forces the companies to choose between charging extra on top of their $9.99 per month service (making the total $12.99) and accepting the loss to match Apple Music's pricing.
In addition, the FTC's reportedly looking into the App Store's numerous restrictions, as well. These include prohibiting companies from mentioning that their apps are also available on other platforms and from pointing customers to their websites to purchase goods and services. That's the reason why Spotify recently decided to send an email blast to subscribers with instructions on how to sign up directly on its website instead of paying $3 more through iTunes.
Good lord. What is next -- does Whole Foods have to post a notice next to the tomatoes that you can buy them cheaper at Kroger? Clearly Spotify has found a workaround without any help from Big Brother at all.
