Rich Fiscus
7 Feb 2008 23:53
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which among other things is responsible for enforcing federal antitrust laws, is apparently suspicious of record labels intentions with respect to a new proposed subscription music service tentatively called TotalMusic. The service, originally proposed by Universal Music Group (UMG) CEO Doug Morris, would provide most major label titles for a monthly $5 subscription fee, which Morris has suggested be paid by portable media player manufacturers.
A report in a music industry periodical called MusicAlly indicates that DOJ officials have contacted all four major labels to get more information. What apparently concerns DOJ regulators is the possibility that the labels are actually just trying to put existing online music services, most notably iTunes, out of business. It probably doesn't help any that the idea for TotalMusic surfaced around the same time Morris had a very public falling out with Apple, eventually leading to the company declining to renew the distribution deal between them.
This isn't the first such label backed service that's come under DOJ scrutiny. Before the launch of iTunes, there were two subscription services with label backing - PressPlay and MusicNet - which were similarly investigated, with no evidence found against the labels. One important difference between then and now is that labels are clearly interested in making the most of music downloads, while the earlier case focused on their potential use of the two services as a tool to kill online music entirely.