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Senator Warren criticizes Apple Music in broad speech about big tech

Sen Elizabeth WarrenSen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave a speech about business competition with some pointed remarks about three of the top tech companies in the U.S. She criticized Google, Apple, and Amazon for using their size and clout to limit inroads from other companies, particularly smaller upstarts. She also took regulators and politicians to task for allowing these anti-competitive situations to flourish.

“Google, Apple and Amazon have created disruptive technologies that changed the world, and…they deserve to be highly profitable and successful,” Warren said. “But the opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors that want their chance to change the world again.”

Interestingly, one of Warren’s main issues with Apple centered on its new music offering. She that the company “has placed conditions on its rivals that make it difficult for them to offer competitive streaming services.”

Although nobody from Apple or Apple Music responded to Warren’s comments, a Spotify exec did take the opportunity to make some digs at the rival. “Apple has long used its control of iOS to squash competition in music, driving up the prices of its competitors, inappropriately forbidding us from telling our customers about lower prices, and giving itself unfair advantages across its platform through everything from the lock screen to Siri,” said Jonathan Prince, head of communications and public policy for Spotify. “You know there’s something wrong when Apple makes more off a Spotify subscription than it does off an Apple Music subscription and doesn’t share any of that with the music industry.”

Anna Washenko

One Comment

  1. As a progressive and Democrat myself, I very much agree with her regarding big companies trying to create monopolies.

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