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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

> Another example is, no one is forced to buy Apple Music, but for sure it pops up front and center when you buy a iOS device or Mac.

I never noticed, having never bought Apple Music before and just using spotify instead. I guess if I wanted it to run on a HomePod, I would need it?

> On top of this they will give you free subscription for 3/6 months when you buy a new device knowing full well that most customers won't bother cancelling. All of this behavior takes the air out of competitors like Spotify and is extremely anti competitive.

Doesn't Spotify do the same thing?

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Spotify doesn't get to offer you that when you are setting up your new phone. You have to know about the company and go and install it.

It is good that you are using Spotify and supporting an independent company, but as I was saying defaults and ease of access matters. Spotify is not playing in a level field and regulators have failed to ensure that they are able to.

There are plenty of non-apple speakers that come with Spotify trials. I get that trials are hard to back out of, and I've never activated my Apple Music trial.

> Spotify is not playing in a level field and regulators have failed to ensure that they are able to.

Spotify is still dominating music streaming, more so than Apple Music or Amazon Prime Music (which we used to use since it came free with prime).

> There are plenty of non-apple speakers that come with Spotify trials.

Spotify has to pay for these and has to compete for this with other music streaming companies.

Also, comparison with smart speakers is disingenuous. There are a billion iPhone users itself. No non big tech company smart speaker comes even close.

> Spotify is still dominating music streaming

Because of nailing the product early on and being world class in playlists and music recommendations. Even if Apple music comes 80% close, just by holding distribution advantage, they will capture that market.

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