Apple may delay Beats relaunch following reported DoJ investigation

Apple may delay the re-launch of its Beats-powered music streaming service next month.

Said to be relaunched at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference between June 8 and 12, reports suggest the tech giant is yet to cement key licenses with some of the major labels.

While multiple sources have told media publications including Billboard and The Verge that key deals have not been finalised, the most interesting rumour is that Apple is pressuring record labels to cease deals with streaming services which have ‘freemium’ platforms.

Apple’s reported plans to undercut services like Spotify date back to March this year when it allegedly requested a paid tier of $7.99 per month - Spotify offers its paywall service for $9.99 to its 15 million paid subscribers. Apple’s request was shut down by the label sector who said they wouldn’t go below $9.99.

At the time, Jonathan Prince, head of communications and public policy for Spotify, said 12% of iTunes users had migrated to Spotify and 40% of those users signing up for Spotify’s paid service.

Another claim was that Apple pushed for Universal Music Group to stop YouTube from streaming the label’s videos by offering to match the license fee paid by YouTube.

Without the necessary licensing agreements for a launch, allegedly because of Apple pushing labels to kill-off free streaming, the European Commission and the US Department of Justice have become involved.

The EU began an antitrust investigation into Apple’s licensing deals in early April when negotiations for a $7.99 – and initially $4.99 - Beats service began. At the time Apple was also hoping to negotiate exclusive releases with the labels to undercut its streaming competitors. Now, DoJ officials are reportedly running their own investigation and according to The Verge have interviewed “high-ranking music industry executives about Apple’s business habits.”

It’s not the first time Apple has come under governmental scrutiny. Last year it was found guilty of anti-competitive practices and was forced to pay US$450 million to E-book consumers to compensate them for paying unlawfully inflated prices.

In any case, should Apple decide not to unveil its streaming service at the June Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, it has two other opportunities. Each year Apple holds two other press conference events in the US spring and fall. In the US fall last September Apple unveiled its plans to release U2’s album Songs of Innocence exclusively to 500 million iTunes users – without their permission.

At the 2014 WWDC, the tech giant unveiled its new employees, Beats’ Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

Apple has refused to comment.