Apple Music under antitrust investigation in two US states

Apple Music was only launched on 8 June, but already the service faces antitrust investigations from US authorities in New York and Connecticut over fears that Apple may have used anti-competitive measures during licensing negotiations with music labels.

The new music streaming service, built on Apple's acquisition of Beats Music, will be bundled with iOS 8.4 and offer unlimited music streaming, a 24-hour online radio station and a social media network, all for the price of $9.99 (£6.47) a month.

Concerns have been raised by potential competitors to the new music streaming service, who fear that Apple might have persuaded music labels to stop supporting free advertiser-supported music such as YouTube and Spotify.

The European Commission (EC) already started a separate investigation into the same issue in April 2015, presumably due to a formal complaint having been made to the EC.

Apple was previously investigated for colluding with five major publishers to fix the prices of ebooks in 2010, and in 2013 a New York appeals court upheld a ruling by the US Department of Justice that Apple had played a "central role" in conspiring to raise ebook prices in its iBooks store.

Despite protesting its innocence at every turn, in July 2014 Apple settled out of court, agreeing to pay up to $450m in order to avoid a class-action lawsuit brought by 33 US states that could have cost the company over $800m.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has published a letter received on 8 June from lawyers representing Universal Music Group (UMG) on, in which the record label replied to queries regarding anti-competitive actions in the music streaming industry.

UMG claimed in the letter that it has no agreements with either Apple, Sony Music Entertainment or Warner Music Group to "impede the availability of third-party free or ad-supported music streaming services" or to "limit, restrict, or prevent UMG from licensing its recorded music repertoire to any third party music streaming service".

According to Strategy Analytics analyst Mike Goodman, Apple has picked the right time to enter the music streaming market: "The timing is ripe. The license deal the record labels were locked into with Spotify expire this year, so Apple's move gives the record labels much greater leverage in their negotiations. This is the chink in the dragon's armor that Apple can target."

The Apple Music app will launch on 30 June with a free three-month trial. Strategy Analytics has forecast that streaming will account for 30% of the total music revenue in 2015.