Attorneys general in NY and Conn. investigating whether Apple, music labels violated antitrust laws in talking about competing freemium services like Spotify
2 States Look for Collusion Between Apple Music and Major Labels — While Apple was preparing a splashy introduction for a new service …
Context & Ripple Effects
State attorneys general are stepping into a fight Washington already started: weeks earlier, [[a:828865|the Justice Department was looking closely at how Apple pushed record labels to drop free Spotify streaming]] ahead of the Beats relaunch. The New York and Connecticut inquiry widens that lens from pressure on individual labels to possible coordinated action between Apple and the majors against freemium competitors.
The scrutiny has legs beyond this investigation — within a month sources reported FTC interest in how Apple treats rival music streaming services in its App Store, and years later Spotify's App Store fee complaint led the EU to open its own probe before charging Apple formally.
First-order effects
- Apple and the major labels now face parallel probes from DOJ and two state AGs over their pre-launch discussions about freemium services like Spotify, raising legal exposure for both sides of those conversations.
- Spotify gains regulatory cover without filing anything itself — the free-tier model it depends on for conversion is suddenly a protected subject of inquiry rather than just a negotiating lever.
Second-order effects
- If state investigators find evidence of coordinated label behavior, other freemium-dependent services gain leverage in future licensing renewals, shifting pricing power away from Apple's launch terms.
- The FTC's separate look at App Store treatment of rival streamers means Apple faces scrutiny on two fronts — content-side collusion and distribution-side favoritism — multiplying compliance risk.
Third-order effects
- The pattern here — US agencies probing, then the EU opening a probe after Spotify's complaint and eventually charging Apple over in-app payment requirements — points toward streaming-platform conduct becoming a durable, multi-jurisdiction antitrust battleground where regulator responses cascade across borders.
The trend: Antitrust scrutiny of Apple's music-streaming conduct is expanding from US federal and state agencies into sustained international enforcement, with each probe lowering the barrier for the next.