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eCounsel group

A boutique firm with unparalleled expertise in business and technology. We have good command of industrial ecology and legal practice, and have undertaken highly regarded cases. Because the small business scope, we pay more emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency, and choose clients with deliberation. The managing partner not only has extensive experiences in various legal issues more over than 20 years, but invests and manages several technology companies. In addition, he always checks each case rigorously. Clients’ business objectives are our primary focus. To achieve the same in the most cost-effective fashion trumps all seemingly sophisticated legal discussions.

Apple Music – Hitting the Wall Before Hitting the Shelves

2015 - 06 - 12

Apple Music under antitrust scrutiny  

「The attorneys general of New York and Connecticut are now investigatingwhether the deals struck by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) for its new music service violated antitrust rules.

The joint investigation will probe whether Apple pressured music labels – or whether the labels conspired with Apple and one another – to withdraw support for popular “freemium” services like Spotify in favor of its new paid streaming music service.

Eric Schneiderman and Connecticut’s George Jepsen were also among a group of attorneys generals who in 2013 sued Apple for conspiring to raise the prices of e-books. Apple agreed to pay $450M as part of that settlement.」

http://seekingalpha.com/news/2571016-apple-music-under-antitrust-scrutiny

在我的〔Apple Music 來勢猛暴〕裡就提到這個產品可能會有違反公平交易相關法令的問題,然後就看到這則新聞了。

紐約州和康乃迪克州的檢察總長聯手,對Apple啟動反壟斷的調查,要瞭解Apple有無壓迫唱片公司(或唱片公司有無與Apple共謀)撤回對於如Spotify之業者的廣告支持的免費音樂(freemium)模式,以利自家的付費音樂串流服務的發展。這兩位檢察總長也在2013年時對Apple在e-book抬價案起訴,該案中Apple賠了4.5億美元的和解金。

姑不論iPod的精神意義,Apple這局玩很大(在100個國家要同時開台)、錢砸很多(光買Beats就花了美金30億,而我從Spotify付給Sony的數字來預測,光為美國加拿大的兩地授權,Apple每年的預付權利金恐怕也得接近美金1億),會不會隨便做一做看看沒啥起色就收攤?如果不會,那它可能祭出的手段難道只有把freemium給殺了嗎?

再加上,Apple裡主導這個產品的都是重量級的資深音樂人,他們與唱片界的淵源,遠比大多數的串流業者要深。聚在一塊兒,不多搞些小陰謀,你信?

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