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Comment by llm_nerd | Hacker News Reader

A tiny musician withdrew their music, so I'm not sure how relevant breaking up mega firms is.

In cases like this, a creator puts their own music on a service like Amuse. They or that service (acting as their "publisher") removed it, which removes Apple's right to stream it.

Apple didn't take away this guy's Ladybug Music.

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But Apple sure did market iMusic as a legitimate replacement for owned physical media while never mentioning the the fact you don't own it and it may disappear at any time. That fact is only mentioned buried somewhere in the EULA, and only popularized by people like the EFF and the victims.

This person didn't own this music in iTunes. They are using Apple Music, which is a subscription service that has a fluctuating catalog of music. Right now there are some 100 million songs.

Even with actually buying the music or whatever (and without DRM), it's interesting to consider that digital distribution means that things can be pulled from distribution from one moment to the next, without any warning. And the nature of digital distribution means that in that case there's no remaining stock still to be sold off which you could hunt down, and no second-hand market to speak of, either. So you're immediately down to either piracy, or else nothing…

> A tiny musician withdrew their music, so I'm not sure how relevant breaking up mega firms is.

The later half of the post is about Sony's deal with Paramount ending, resulting in paid content being revoked from Playstation consoles.

Whether Sony refused to pay the previously-agreed upon rate, or Paramount decided to unreasonably increase what Sony was paying, we may never know, but both of those are definitely large enough for the commenter's remark to be relevant.

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