As Apple and Spotify battle to dominate the latest trend in music – online streaming — their corporate rivalry is morphing into a high-stakes influence war in Washington.

Spotify’s lobbyists have quietly made the rounds in D.C., whispering to lawmakers for months that Apple’s new music offering threatens to stifle its competitors, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The apparent goal has been to raise antitrust suspicions about the iPhone giant, which faced a previous government lawsuit over its pricing of e-books.


The secretive congressional meetings come amid reports that the Federal Trade Commission is looking into Apple’s streaming service, though the agency has declined to say if it’s opened a probe. Still, Spotify’s effort to fan the flames highlights the intensity of the clash between the two companies – and the potential for scrutiny as Apple enters a new, fast-evolving market.

Jonathan Prince, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy, declined to detail his company’s contacts with officials in Washington, but characterized them as part of a general effort to keep D.C. informed.

“The entire music economy is evolving, and we want to make sure it’s evolving in a way that’s good for consumers, rights holders, musicians … the entire business,” Prince said in an interview. He added Spotify has “regular conversations with government officials” on a “range of issues, including intellectual property, licensing, copyright and competition.”

Apple declined to comment for this story. But the iPhone giant has clearly been pressing its own points in Washington. Federal lobbying disclosures show Apple, which spent a record $1.2 million in D.C. in the first quarter of the year, has made copyright issues — which include music — a top priority in the capital.

Apple’s streaming and curated radio services, which launched June 30, are designed to strike directly at Spotify, Pandora and other music apps. While competitors like Spotify offer both free and premium, ad-free services, Apple will requre users to pay at least $10 a month. The company is offering a free, three-month trial for subscribers.

In meetings with key lawmaker offices over the past several months, Spotify’s lobbyists have alleged that Apple leveraged its size to strike unfair deals with record labels for its streaming service. They’ve also argued against Apple’s longstanding practice of taking 30 percent cut of all subscriptions sold through the App Store — including those of rival streaming apps like Spotify.

Spotify took its case to staff for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and other panel members in May, according to a congressional source. The company also held a meeting with aides to Rep. Tom Marino (R-Penn.), the leader of the chamber’s antitrust subcommittee, another source said. Marino’s team later heard from Apple’s lobbyists, too.

On the opposite side of the Capitol, Spotify met with staff for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a member of that chamber’s antitrust subcommittee, back in March, a source indicated. Asked about meetings with Spotify, a spokeswoman for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, would only say the lawmaker is “at the moment keeping abreast of the matter in our FTC oversight capacity.” The panel’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), declined to comment for this story.

Antitrust scrutiny isn’t a new challenge for Apple. A federal court in 2013 ruled the tech giant conspired with publishers to unfairly raise the cost of e-books — a decision recently upheld by an appeals court. Apple has consistently denied the Justice Department’s allegations, though the company hasn’t said whether it will appeal further.

Spotify has been beefing up its Washington presence in anticipation of the fight with Apple. The company in April hired four outside lobbying shops to tackle issues around music streaming, licensing and “platform neutrality” — an early sign, sources said at the time, that the company was taking aim at the iPhone giant. And Spotify recently retained Jonathan Kanter, a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, as one of its legal advisors. Kanter represented Microsoft in its earlier antitrust battle with the federal government.

In another sign of tensions between the two companies, Spotify recently emailed its subscribers to encourage them to cancel Spotify subscriptions they made through the Apple App Store and re-enroll using Spotify’s own website.