People love Apple, partly because it makes cool stuff, and partly because the company presents itself in a way that makes it seem like loving it is a great idea that you just came up with on your own. Even when Apple does something that seems stupid, some people quickly forgive it and assume the stupid thing was a one-time lapse in judgement. It’s all because Apple thinks different (get it?), which helps it avoid doing the evil things that most companies in the world do.
Well, in theory, at least. According to The Verge, Apple has been quietly suggesting that record labels choose not to renew their licensing agreements that allow Spotify to stream their music on its ad-supported free tier. The idea is that Spotify will eventually have to drop its free level, which will make it harder for the service to compete with whatever Apple does with Beats Music—Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s streaming service that Apple bought last year for $3 billion. The Verge’s sources also claim that Apple recently offered to pay the fees that Universal Music Group gets from YouTube licenses if it agreed to pull the songs it owns. Now, the Department Of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are investigating Apple to see if it’s really being as shady as these reports suggest that it is.
Obviously, though, we’re talking about Apple here. If it’s really trying to use dirty tricks to undermine a competitor’s business, it has to have a totally cool reason for doing that, right? Either way, we should all stop talking about this to show Apple how loyal we are. Maybe then we can get some free Apple Watches!