Spotify is deeply in bed with the traditional labels/music industry and that industry seems to be able to "move" stuff easily from what I've seen. I always have a hard time visualizing all the components at play here though.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23618264/eu-antitrust-cas...
Also of course, Spotify is somewhat of a monopoly of its own, or a chosen 'winner' by the music industry at large colluding.
Spotify has ~30% of the market, Apple Music, Tencent, and Amazon have each ~13%, YouTube Music another ~9%.
That's far from a monopoly...
Is that true? My Alexa and Sonos devices work great with Apple Music.
Apple might not even do that, but given Google's documented behaviors about making their sites work better with Chrome they might expect that Apple would if they could.
FWIW, Apple doesn't control the music industry. Spotify has more than twice the marketshare of Apple Music, so I'd imagine that (for now) Spotify has commensurate influence over the music industry.
> …they might be tempted to make their hardware handle that music better.
Maybe Google would, but (to my original point) Apple doesn't tie their media services to their devices.¹ I think it's worth keeping in mind that you really can't equate Google's evil tendencies to Apple's (and vice-versa) because their business models are completely different.
ok but your previous comment was in response to
>>And both Google and Sony really doesn't want Apple to control the music streaming industry as it could affect their device sales.
>Is that true? My Alexa and Sonos devices work great with Apple Music.
so when I replied
> when a company that produces hardware that plays music has control over the industry that delivers music to that hardware…
it is meant to imply that I am answering
>is that true?
with - Yes, that is true BECAUSE...
and my statement
> …they might be tempted to make their hardware handle that music better.
followed by
>Apple might not even do that, but given Google's documented behaviors
should be interpreted as me saying
Apple doesn't tie their media services to their devices (although that might change if they found it very beneficial). But Google is evil and would tie their media services to their devices therefore they might expect that other companies would do the same.
Pure speculation: by necessity, Spotify has probably gotten pretty good at those things too. I would bet they've got some pretty heavy hitters in the dealmaking department.
And as far as I can tell, the music labels (Warner/Sony/Universal) need Spotify to be able to negotiate with Apple/Google/Amazon.