Spotify CEO on Apple and Google: 'If You Want to Be the Referee, You Can't Also Be the Player'

[Unregistered 4U]

Not sure you thought that one through. That money needs to come from somewhere.

The money should come from their customers. If they can’t make money from their customers with a 70% cut, then they’re bad at business. Apple makes far less than that when they sell hardware through places like Best Buy, Target, and WalMart and they’re able to make a profit.

Some folks just don’t know how to ensure that their costs of doing business are below the money they take in.

 

[Boeingfan]

Or if Apple don't like legislation in the UK and Europe they could do the same

And that helps Spotify how?

 

[klasma]

Except that there wasn’t a single company categorized as any sort of gatekeeper or dominant platform under their new regulations. Either they are engaging in proxy trade wars via legislation or the regulatory environment has made it difficult for companies to succeed.

I agree that if the regulation had already existed 15 years earlier, the now-gatekeepers would have had more difficulties to become gatekeepers in the first place. I'd say that's a good thing. And it's not like similar efforts aren't also being targeted in the US from both parties, here's just the latest one: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/27/...n-warren-graham-tech-agency-antitrust-privacy

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

And that helps Spotify how?

It helps them because we all know Apple won't do that, they will comply with whatever regulation is meted out to them.

Apple has had years of beating the competition over the head with their arbitrary rules and now they are finding out how that goes.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Ultimately, that does add some "red tape and bureaucracy", yes it does. But it would also go a long way to show their partners that publish on the app store, that they will be treated fairly and to the same standard Apple treats themselves.

I mean, Spotify, KNOWING that Apple was already in the music business for YEARS before them, thought it was a good idea to enter the music business on the back of Apple’s iPhone and Apple’s App Store. I would have told them at the time that they’ll never make a profit with that and I would have been right.

 

[paulovsouza]

I just don’t understand where you can draw the line. Apple sold music first. They created the device. The OS. So a company can make hardware or software or services, can’t do multiple. Also Spotify not only created its platform it creates content for it as well.

 

[duffman9000]

Spotify is just making a whole lot of noise to cover up the fact that they don’t really have a viable business model to begin with. Nor should Apple be expected to prop them up, and I don’t see why Spotify should be allowed to amass a huge subscriber base on iOS, using Apple’s platform and infrastructure, without paying for access.

This is what it all comes down to - the equivalent of jumping the turnstile at the train station. Spotify wants all the benefits of operating in the App Store, without having to pay a single cent in return.

And they still aren’t profitable.

Spotify should just close down.

I think of Apple Music as the supermarket house brand. If Spotify is the superior brand why does it choose to lower itself to the same price as the house brand? Tidal charges more because it believed it’s superior. Why can’t Spotify?

 

[rp2011]

The spotify CEO has a valid point.

 

[JamesMay82]

100% agree. Most of these laws and lawsuits would go away, or never wouldn’t have happened in the first place, were it not for the absurd cut these companies require. It’s naked greed.

They created it so they can charge what they want. Also what bugs me is why does no raise these issues with Amazon who have destroyed multiple industries

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

They created it so they can charge what they want. Also what bugs me is why does no raise these issues with Amazon who have destroyed multiple industries

Um

FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com, Inc.

www.ftc.gov

 

[GMShadow]

Um

FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com, Inc.

www.ftc.gov

The FTC is run by a certified moron who is taking L after fat L in court. That might clue you in as to the validity of the claims the FTC makes.

 

[TheLinkster]

Au contraire. Spotify, like Netflix, could offer sales of their service outside of the the App Store and not pay the 30%. There are many businesses that have apps on the Apple App Store that do not offer financial transactions through the store.

And so Netflix, by being a marketplace of other content, shouldn't also produce their own? Where's that crackdown?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

This moron CEO should spend less time on metaphors and more time trying to make a profit for his company. The App Store commission is not the problem — it is his business model. And users can go directly to Spotify to sign up, but they find out that more users want to purchase through the app — that is the value you get by paying the commission. If they don’t want to pay it, then they need to accept lower sub numbers.

So, I was just having a moment… thinking to myself “Why is he complaining? Spotify CURRENTLY is not paying any money to Apple because people can’t subscribe through the app (the only way Apple would make money off them), so where’s this complaint coming from?”

Your post made it clear, he really REALLY wants just wants access to Apple’s customers directly again. Apple’s millions of customers that, due to the way Apple’s built the experience, have credit card numbers ON file and are actually willing to spend money to subscribe for things. The customers that Apple has spent billions of dollars on researching and building devices, developing the OS and App Store for those devices, and shipping devices all around the world AND setting up a payment system that works in every country Apple does business for these users to securely and confidently purchase digital goods and services.

Every single person with an Apple device in their hand has that device due to the immense effort that Apple has taken to make that device desirable to them. And Spotify finds no value in that work and at the same time, finds tremendous value in that they, for some reason, badly wants access to those customers but not under the same terms that everyone else has access to them.

 

[JamesMay82]

Um

FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com, Inc.

www.ftc.gov

That’s interesting but it’s also about 15 years too late. How come Europe have never gone after them as well.

 

[GigabitEthernet]

I actually think Apple Music is superior to Spotify when you have a library you want to manage.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

That’s interesting but it’s also about 15 years too late. How come Europe have never gone after them as well.

They did. Amazon avoided any big penalties though

Amazon reaches settlement in three EU antitrust cases, avoids fine

Amazon on Tuesday reached a settlement with the European Union in three antitrust probes after the U.S. online retailer addressed the EU's concerns over its use of sellers' data, saving it from a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover.

www.reuters.com

 

[ijordano]

So sick of companies complaining that life is unfair because Apple is successful. Spotify wouldn't even be on the app store if Apple didn't literally invent and maintain the App Store??

 

[JamesMay82]

That sounds more relevant to their FBA business. I’m talking how they priced items to put independent retailers out of business and even the big box retailers out of business. I’ve been a supplier on Amazon and they would bully you to give them pricing or they would threaten to remove your products. They are a nightmare to deal with

 

[Xenden]

If you charge $10/month for your music service, it is anticompetitive to take 30% of your competitors $10/month music service.

If you owned a store in a mall selling (price-controlled) Rolexes and the mall opened their own store next door to you selling the same Rolexes, you'd cry foul.

But the mall analogy still isn't as bad as the App Store... The mall does incur lost revenue (not leasing finite space to another tenant) with their own store where Apple does not. And you can at least move malls.

So either Apple would charge itself 30%, in which case they would be putting money from its left pocket into its right; or there could be an argument that Apple charges 30% less then it otherwise would. Passing the savings onti the customer. (lol)

Spotify is just trying to argue that there should be two less players in the game.

 

[The_Gream]

I wonder if Apple's response will be to just remove the app from their App Store. People can then subscribe etc on the web etc minus the fee.

Last I knew, Spotify hasn’t allowed new subscribers via the app for years. They just recently made it so the few people they had using the auto-renewal feature in the app couldn’t do that any more.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

That sounds more relevant to their FBA business. I’m talking how they priced items to put independent retailers out of business and even the big box retailers out of business. I’ve been a supplier on Amazon and they would bully you to give them pricing or they would threaten to remove your products. They are a nightmare to deal with

Those practices sound familiar

The bitter lawsuit hanging over the Apple Watch’s new swipe keyboard

Apple’s head of keyboards stands accused of trying to crush competition

www.theverge.com

 

[jayducharme]

Apple and Google's control over how billions of consumers access the internet is "insane."

How exactly are they controlling access? You're perfectly free to set the browser of your choice as a default search engine. And you can install a completely different browser if you don't like Safari.

 

[mazz0]

Well yeah. It’s pretty hard to argue against any of that isn’t it? Other than saying “waa waa I hate Europe and their socialised healthcare waa waa waa”.

 

[ikramerica]

Europe has internalized that the referee can't be a player on so many levels in the world, high-tech and military just two of them. They love to tell others what to do.

Like state financing of Airbus and then regulation regarding aircraft design snd safety. Or state financing of airlines and then regulating aviation.

 

[mac 2005]

When Spotify pays ALL the artists the FULL VALUE of their music, I'll consider considering his opinion as anything other than self-aggrandizement and -enrichment.