Apple In Negotiations With Majors To Offer ‘Unlimited Download’ iPod Packages
Apple is purportedly slowly and methodically wearing down the major labels’ negotiating price of an all-you-can-handle-but-for-a-premium smorgasbord download plan for your iPod and iPhone, according to a recent report by the Financial Times, and competitor eMusic is none too thrilled at present:
“They’re basically saying, ‘Let’s give a piece of every iPod sale to the record labels in exchange for bundling in all the music you can eat with every iPod’” said [CEO of competitor eMusic David] Pakman. “That’s classic Sherman Antitrust Act behavior. It’s called tying, and it’s where a company with a monopoly position in one market uses that monopoly position unfairly to compete in another.” (source)
Wah, wah. What do we think? Are you a subscriber to eMusic or Napster? I’ve tried both; personally, I say bring it on. Any Rhapsody users? Who uses what out there…(Limewire & Soulseek don’t count; Seeqpod users, holla)
» EMusic CEO Raises Antitrust Concerns About Apple’s Unlimited Music Plan (Wired)
I don’t see how his argument stands. iPods don’t have a monopoly, and neither do any of the record companies. I suppose if they could give us all you can eat music for a fee, they’d have a big advantage. But the real enemy here is the uber-greedy record companies that have been charging artificially high prices for years, yesno?