An Apple Music Monopoly?

Posted January 3rd, 2007 by

I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later:

A class action lawsuit (Tucker vs. Apple Computer) initially filed July 21 alleges that:

“Apple has engaged in tying and monopolizing behavior, placing unneeded and unjustifiable technological restrictions on its most popular products in an effort to restrict consumer choice and restrain what little remains of its competition in the digital music markets. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has himself compared Apple’s digital music dominance to Microsoft’s personal computer operating system dominance.”

Full story here.

I’m not sure where I sit on this issue. On the one hand, Apple has done a lot for the digital music market by creating a magical combination of hardware and software that provides a great user experience. As a result, I have been the proud owner of a first-gen iPod Shuffle for over a year now.

On the other hand, I’m sure record labels are choosing not to distribute their music on other online stores due to the Apple’s majority share of the market, thereby limiting the means by which consumers can get their music digitally. With digital rights management software showing up on physical music CDs, the average consumer’s choices are certainly becoming more limited.

It should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

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