Business News Digital

Is Apple cracking down on music download apps?

By | Published on Tuesday 1 July 2014

Apple

One of the less talked about but nevertheless real piracy gripes of the music industry has seemingly been addressed by Apple, in the US at least, with the tech giant apparently removing many of the popular music download apps from its store.

Many of the music download apps available for iOS devices tap into unlicensed or semi-unauthorised content sources (in that they pull content intended for streaming on YouTube and SoundCloud and download it to devices).

While label grievances towards said apps have never been as vocal compared to the record industry’s opposition to MegaUpload, The Pirate Bay et al, it’s thought that the majors have been putting pressure on Apple – and on Google too for its app store – about the presence of the apps that, they reckon, primarily existing to enable copyright infringement.

Both Hypebot and MacRumors have noted that in recent weeks many of the music download apps seem to have disappeared from the Apple store, while search results for the key words ‘music download’ lead with legit streaming service apps, with the tech firm’s own iTunes Radio leading the way.

Interestingly in the UK, where iTunes Radio is yet to launch, while Spotify does come fourth in that search list, there are still plenty of the sort of download apps that the majors don’t like still available, so it’s possible the app clean up is linked to Apple’s move into streaming music, a move that has stepped up even more in the US since its acquisition of Beats.



READ MORE ABOUT: