Apple asking music labels to kill Spotify’s free streaming tier

Apple is trying to convince record labels not to renew Spotify’s license to stream music for free, drawing even more scrutiny from the Department of Justice, The Verge reports. Apple’s aggressive attempts to undercut the competition ahead of releasing its upcoming subscription music streaming service have already drawn attention from regulators in the the U.S. and Europe. If successful, this latest gambit would leave an estimated 45 million free Spotify users without the free listening option, putting Apple in a prime spot to grab new users by offering exclusive content that the paid tier of Spotify doesn’t have. Sources also told The Verge that Apple has offered to pay YouTube’s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the label will pull its songs from YouTube. Apple is expected to launch the new streaming service at WWDC in June.