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EU Opens Competition Probe Into Apple's Bid For Music App Shazam (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

EU antitrust regulators opened an investigation on Monday into Apple's bid for British music discovery app Shazam, concerned the deal might give the iPhone maker an unfair advantage in poaching users from its rivals. From a report: Apple announced the deal in December to help it better compete with industry leader Spotify. Shazam lets users identify songs by pointing a smartphone at the audio source. The European Commission said it was concerned about Apple's access to data on Shazam's users who use competing music streaming services in Europe.

2 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. The EU is Retarded by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They may be well-meaning; but they seem to be even more Regulation-Happy than the U.S. Congress, and that's saying something!

    So now, nobody can have an online service that might POSSIBLY inadvertently gather data that might POSSIBLY be also gathered by a "Competitor"?

    I don't know how Shazam works; but do you have to tell it what Streaming Music Service you might (or might not) belong to to use it? If not, then this is a horseshit suggestion.

    1. Re:The EU is Retarded by SeaFox · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I don't know how Shazam works; but do you have to tell it what Streaming Music Service you might (or might not) belong to to use it? If not, then this is a horseshit suggestion.

      You don't tell it what you subscribe to, it's a standalone app. But once it identifies a song it gives you links to music services to obtain the track. The fear here is that Apple will remove links to rival services and make Apple Music the only service you can easily follow through on.