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Al Franken asks for Apple Music investigation that's already happening

Al Franken asks for Apple Music investigation that's already happening

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Senators are losing playlists, too, you know

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Writing to both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, Senator Al Franken has asked for an examination of Apple's potentially anti-competitive behavior in the music streaming service market. This assertion is dependent on the 30 percent cut Apple takes out of streaming service subscriptions sold through the App Store, which forces competitors like Spotify and Pandora to either charge higher rates or lose an amount in revenue equivalent to that sliced away by the cut. On a typical $9.99 monthly subscription, that equals roughly $3.

Franken's request is coming on the heels of an FTC investigation into Apple's practices, specifically the 30 percent cut mentioned above. Earlier this week, The Verge reported that the FTC was subpoenaing other streaming services in an attempt to determine whether or not Apple's behavior is anti-competitive. Franken's letter may not affect its investigation in any substantive way right now, but Congressional pressure could affect the commission's decision to take action if they end up deeming Apple's actions anti-competitive.

iCloud Music Library keeps deleting his collection of smooth jams

With that said, it's fun to pretend that Apple Music's bugginess and occasional outages have driven him into a legislative rage, right? Franken could accept the odd Beats 1 blip and catalog gap — but when syncing with iCloud Music Library deleted his treasured Sunday Morning Smooth Jams playlist for the fourth night in a row, he knew he had to take action.

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