Comment by JustExAWS
3 months ago
The EU is not concerned with users in this case they are worried about developers having to deal with a monopsony and trying to make the mobile market more open to competition for developers. Spotify is the same gatekeeper for musicians.
If the market is selling music, musicians can sell CDs just fine without Spotify. On performances I went to, nearly everyone has offered buying or ordering CDs, while only a few have told that you can listen to them on Spotify.
And people can communicate without using Facebook, search without using Google etc and they are still considered “Gatekeepers”. And who listens to CDs anymore or even has a CD player in their car or on their computer? How do you get the music on your phone?
I was in Seattle a couple of years ago walking around and someone was selling CDs of their music on the street like it was the early 2000s. WTF am I going to do with a CD?
Do people carry around CD Walkman’s anymore? But you’re not going to be a major artist and get wide appeal or even gain an audience without being on Spotify - more so in Europe than in the US where Apple Music has a larger market share.
Because Facebook and Google insert themself into unrelated websites, their monopoly is not just search.
> And who listens to CDs anymore or even has a CD player in their car or on their computer?
True for computers, but every cheap radio has a CD player and it's very common to have one in the car.
> How do you get the music on your phone?
Ripping them from a CD.
Like I agree CDs are getting less common, but not for sells at a concert. Nobody is going to tell you to use Spotify, because it screams "cheap"! That might fly for hobby musicians, but professionals will ruin their reputation.
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