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Comment by microtherion | Hacker News Reader

> Tinder, Microsoft, Facebook, Spotify have all openly backed Epic

Oh, it's going to be so much fun when Epic wins and Taylor Swift decides to apply the same legal reasoning to the cut she pays Spotify for her music…

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The difference would be that the same iPhone has access to Taylor Swift through Spotify, Apple Music, Play Music (does that even exist anymore?) and so on.

Put the app store on the same level of competition and level the playing field of Spotify vs Apple Music in regards to the 30% subscription fee.

Play Music recently got merged into Youtube Music (formerly Youtube Red).

They kept all the features of Play, like uploading your own library, so honestly the least bad Google product death I've seen so far.

They killed the Google Music API, and the YouTube successor has no equivalent API.

You must have a wildly different experience with YouTube Music then me. This forced migration was the final tipping point to push me to Spotify. YouTube Music's UX is _horrendous_ compared to Google Play Music, and the pre-canned radio stations are almost completely missing.

There are multiple streaming services, but most people won't pay for multiple services, so there is a lock in effect. And Spotify has a higher market share in music streaming than Apple has in cell phones.

Switching my $10/month payment from Spotify to iTunes is negligible compared to replacing a $700+ smartphone (which is likely on a payment plan). And in the latter case I lose access to every single app I have paid for over a decade.

Does Spotify control one of the two major mobile phone platforms and use that control to require all their users to use only their music service?

Does Spotify control one of the two major music platforms and use that control to require artists to use only their music service (via exclusives)?

And can you explain how I am using Spotify on my iPhone if Apple is "forcing" users to only use Apple Music ?

> Does Spotify control one of the two major music platforms and use that control to require artists to use only their music service (via exclusives)?

Exclusives aren't mandatory. The artists get paid extra for that and can decline it if they want to.

> And can you explain how I am using Spotify on my iPhone if Apple is "forcing" users to only use Apple Music ?

The analogy to "their music service" is Apple requiring iPhone users to use exclusively their iOS app store.

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