Petteri Pyyny
6 Aug 2001 14:03
U.S. Justice Department is following the path of European Commission and has began its own investigations focusing on major record label-owned digital music subscription services MusicNet and Pressplay. Justice Department wants to find out if label-owned services violate U.S. competition rules putting other similiar services into impossible position in terms of competition.
MusicNet is owned by RealNetworks, AOL TimeWarner, EMI and BMG and Pressplay is a joint venture between Sony and Vivendi. Small digital music companies have been complaining that labels don't grant licenses to them or price them so that smaller companies can't afford to license the music.