AfterDawn: News

U.S. Justice Department to probe into iTunes' dominance

According to sources close to the talks, it appears the U.S. Justice Department has been looking into whether Apple "unfairly dominates" the digital music market with its popular iTunes store.

The sources say the Justice Department has been contacting music labels and other digital music providers, asking broad questions about the nature of the market in general, and Apple's role in it.



The new inquiries may have been stemmed by accusations in March that Apple was using its giant market share lead to prevent rival Amazon MP3 from debuting new songs exclusively before they hit iTunes a day or two later.

The iTunes store currently has about 70 percent market share, with Amazon trailing at around 9 percent.

Global music sales have fallen from $26.5 billion at the start of the decade to just $17 billion last year, even as digital music sales have exploded.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 May 2010 22:12

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• 6 comments

• DXR88

  DoJ sticking its nose where it don't belong yet again.
  

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  26.5.2010 22:18 #1

• KillerBug

  Apple's dominance is due to ease...itunes is easy to use, and stupid people don't know any better. Simple as that...if Amazon made the iPod/iPhone/iPad, then apple would probably have less than 9%.

  26.5.2010 23:18 #2

• Mrguss

  MP3's Compress Music. No my cup of tea....not even for free !
  I pass.....thx.
  

  +4000

  27.5.2010 00:52 #3

• Jake_C

  Originally posted by Mrguss: MP3's Compress Music. No my cup of tea....not even for free !
  I pass.....thx. You cant't here the differance though if you use high bite rates etc though...?
  
  Though I think apple do dominate it's just because everyone knows how to use itunes and not so much about amazons mp3 store.
  

  
  

  27.5.2010 11:26 #4

• joe777

  Originally posted by Jake_C: Originally posted by Mrguss: MP3's Compress Music. No my cup of tea....not even for free !
  I pass.....thx. You cant't here the differance though if you use high bite rates etc though...?
  
  Though I think apple do dominate it's just because everyone knows how to use itunes and not so much about amazons mp3 store. When using a vbr on mp3 it is not so bad but there still is a big difference in sound quality. To much for me also. I suppose if you use shitty playing devices then you might not notice so much.

  31.5.2010 15:32 #5

• s_c47

  Good. Maybe this will be the first nail in Apple's coffin.
  

  Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those
  who dare to cross the line.
  But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you.
  Maybe it takes longer to catch a total a__hole.

  1.6.2010 02:13 #6