Then Spotify also cannot be the referee and the player. They cannot declare unfair conduct by Apple when offering their own product to market. When Spotify makes phones and their own App Store they will surely allow or disallow whoever they wish, the reverse is also true. Spotify has no product without piggybacking another company’s platform.
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Spotify CEO on Apple and Google: 'If You Want to Be the Referee, You Can't Also Be the Player'
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Apple didn't have a subscription model back then.iTunes Store introduced: 2003
Spotify app introduced: 2008 At that time, STRANGELY entirely fine with the App Store rules. One wonders why? What has changed? The money they made from Apple’s customers?
Besides, it seems so many complain about Apple. Cingular/the new AT&T had an exclusive on the iPhone but had to upgrade their 1.5 G towers to 2 G and complained that Apple iPhone users were using most of the company's bandwidth.
If Apple's cut was down to half, they would still complain. Imagine if they got their product into a brick-and-mortar store for only a 15% cut?
What are you talking about? Apple Music launched in 2015. Prior to that, Apple sold music in iTunes but they didn't sell music streaming - a thing Spotify started doing a year before Apple launched the first iPhone. Apple was actually really late to the game in launching their own music streaming service.
If anything, I'd say the opposite is true in this case; Spotify did all of the original R&D and took all the risk to prove there was a market for music streaming service in that format. Apple came along and launched a blatant ripoff of Spotify's service.
Back in the 90s, MS got in huge trouble for bundling Internet Explorer for free with Windows. Here Apple is charging money for the competition to compete on their platform. Can you imagine if they pulled the same stunt in the 90s?
Anyway, funny story: I use Apple Music and I don't like Spotify. I dislike their ad model, their CEO's attitude, and the podcasts they do - I don't like their podcasters and I don't like how they push/advertise their crappy podcasts when I use spotify. So I don't use their service.
Still, I don't think Apple is necessarily playing fair here.
What exactly does Spotify want here? If Apple isn't allowed to be competitive with their pricing, then is Spotify also not allowed? So every music streaming app has to charge (and gets to keep) $10/month since that's what Apple charges? Is that what Spotify wants?
Where’s my AirPlay 2 and HomePod support? Others can implement it, and it’s all public.
Maybe Spotify is just crying over nothing.
Maybe Spotify is just crying over nothing.
Daniel Elk is right to say this. The app store is anti-competitive. But Spotify is guilty of the same thing Apple does to them, except they do it to artists. They are both wrong. It's only fair or unfair when I'm on the receiving end.
How dares the European Union *checks notes* regulate the European Market to protect the European consumers.
and how exactly are they doing that in this case?
As a long-time subscriber to Spotify (who still prefers it over Apple Music) I do wish Daniel Ek would just concentrate on making the best music streaming service there is. God knows, that's what got it off the ground in the first place.
You want a bigger piece of the pie? Deliver on your commitment to hi-res/lossless audio. Bring Siri support. Fix shuffling (why do some songs play repeatedly but some never get played?) There's so many other tiny quality of life improvements they've neglected to develop.
You want a bigger piece of the pie? Deliver on your commitment to hi-res/lossless audio. Bring Siri support. Fix shuffling (why do some songs play repeatedly but some never get played?) There's so many other tiny quality of life improvements they've neglected to develop.
**** Spotify unitl they stopped screwing over artists and songwriters they can't have a say in anything.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is urging lawmakers in the United Kingdom to adopt a bill that would regulate competition in digital markets, cutting down on the dominance of Apple, Google, and other large tech companies.
The Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Bill (DMCC) that the UK is developing would allow competition authorities to impose conduct requirements on companies and "promote competition" when a company's policies are "having an adverse effect on competition." Ek has long advocated for legislation that hobbles Apple's ability to both offer a platform (iOS) and compete on that platform with apps like Spotify rival Apple Music.
In an interview with Financial Times, Ek said that Apple and Google's control over how billions of consumers access the internet is "insane."
"Not only are they dictating the rules, they also compete directly downstream with those providers," said Ek. Ek wants the UK bill to make sure that a company that's the referee in the digital market "can't also be the player." The DMCC needs to have "real teeth" he said, adding that the bill is for all developers. "More and more of these developers are now finding that Apple is a competitor," he said.
If passed, the DMCC would give the UK's Competition and Markets Authority the power to impose multibillion-pound fines for large companies that breach the established rules. Tech companies would be required to provide more transparency about how their app stores work, with regulators able to open up specific markets like app stores or search engines.
Spotify has been in a feud with Apple for years, with the dispute between the two companies most recently heating up in 2022 when Apple rejected a Spotify app update that added audiobook support. Spotify back in 2019 filed a regulatory complaint in the European Union over Apple's App Store practices, which is still under investigation, and the company has also backed the Open Markets Act in the United States, legislation that would require Apple to allow for sideloading and alternate app stores.
Article Link: Spotify CEO on Apple and Google: 'If You Want to Be the Referee, You Can't Also Be the Player'
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I use Netflix on my iPhone and I subscribed via the web site, not the app. Tell me again why I cant do that with Spotify?
I believe Spotify is saying exactly that
Microsoft cut from Xbox game store....30%
Nintendo cut from eShop......30%
Sony cut.....30%
Steam cut.....30%
Spotify commission from artist royalty rate.....30%
It seems 30% is the acceptable going rate
Smartphones are required in today’s age to maintain a semblance of quality of life. They are arguably a necessity
And my in laws live over in Europe. They get fined if they keep their child home from school for a day or take them on vacation for any reason outside of scheduled school breaks. They also must pick up their younger children for lunch periods and then return them each day.
The list goes on. I’m not sure how anyone does anything over there. If I had to drive to the school 4 times a day and I COULDNT take my kid on a vacation outside of approved school breaks.
Not to even begin about the “consumer protection” stuff.
Spotify doesn't want to compete with Apple and Google and others who pay artists more than Spotify does. I say let Spotify go out of business.
Apple was in the business of selling music, not streaming music. Zune was a closer competitor to Spotify than Apple music.
Don't forget that piracy was more rampant, there were more streaming options, you could buy a CD to listen to on your computer, and there was less overall streaming compared to digital purchases. The landscape of 2023 is completely different from 2008 which is itself completely different from 2003.iTunes Store introduced: 2003
Spotify app introduced: 2008 At that time, STRANGELY entirely fine with the App Store rules. One wonders why? What has changed? The money they made from Apple’s customers?
This is rich coming from Ek, he told musicians and bands that they work for him now. While I don't disagree with the argument, I'd be faster to hop on the Sweeney train with Epic/Bandcamp long before Spotify. Ek is a joke.
You can't compare Google with Apple. In Android you can do anything. Everything is open in Android like from hardware to software. Unlike Apple where you can't even set default for most apps and no body can get access to NFC for payment except Apple. The real monopoly here is Apple.
I actually agree with him.
While I like that companies can’t hide subscription options in the AppStore Apps, there’s plenty wrong with this situation as it stands.
While I like that companies can’t hide subscription options in the AppStore Apps, there’s plenty wrong with this situation as it stands.
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Am I missing something here? Spotify hasn’t allowed new premium subscriptions through the app store, like Netflix, since 2016, and recently kicked off users who were paying for premium through Apple before they stopped offering that payment method (source).
Someone please tell me how Apple is taking any cut from Spotify’s revenue present day, as it looks like none of their payments are being processed by Apple at all.
The other point to be made is that you can choose not to sell through a mall or even in a store - you could sell the products direct to the customer via a website. At the very least Apple (Android already allows side loading) should be forced to allow side loading - Apple could keep people safe through the use of Notarizing (along with allowing side loading as an 'opt in' process rather than automatically enabled) which they use on macOS or Google/Apple could come together and come up with a standardised way that both Android and iOS devices could use.
Just came to here to say that this type of analogy doesn't work well here, because whether you're Apple, Spotfiy or any of these other services? You're more like a sports teams' manager than a player OR a referee.
The musicians, software developers and other content CREATORS actually made everything that's of any value here. Spotify didn't produce any of their own music albums to stream, and neither did Apple. Apple *does* write some of their own software, but especially in recent times, it's VERY limited. Whether you use a Mac or an iOS device, I almost guarantee the bulk of your software you've installed wasn't developed by Apple.
All these companies are doing is providing the creators a distribution option where they can earn some revenue in return for people consuming the content. (They get to make the rules on how they're going to handle that process, just like your major league sports team manager decides on contracts offered to the players.)