Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This is an excellent move by Spotify.

The whole issue of Apple's 30% fee is now in the public spotlight. Apple need to reduce In-App Purchases to a much lower fee—perhaps 5 or 10%. I'm sure many companies have been put off selling services through the App Store because of this extortionate cost.

30% in perpetuity is a bit ridiculous. I always thought that maybe Apple should just be entitled to the first month's payment and then the developer keeps the remaining payments.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
Well at least you gave it enough time to truly see if it's for you.

It would have been but the way they organize music is bizarre. I like how Spotify separates the Playlists from the actual library. That way I'm not scrolling through a bunch of "albums" that only have 1 song in them just because I added a playlist. I have a TON of playlists which is why I subscribe to these services so that's possibly HUNDREDS of 1 song "albums" I have to scroll through before I get to a real full fledged album. Sure I can search for said album, but I would have to remember them. Spotify makes this easy with the My Music library feature.

Beats used to do this as well, so I'm not sure why Apple Music is mixing the two. Therefore, after a day, I knew the services wasn't going to work for me, especially after seeing changed artwork and my own music not available for me to download. That alone defeats the purchase.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
Trust me, it doesn't - here is the tip of the Iceberg. Lots needs adding to this.

https://www.evernote.com/l/ABUCB7lG8xVE15NK0e1svfX5Wy3-7801J-8

Pretty much. The already have the data in iTunes, yet choose to replicate the same data for Apple Music but give us way less information. If I want to see what the popular song of a particular album is, why do I have to go to iTunes. Why can't I just see that in Apple Music. They built and are maintaining 2 UI's for the same data...bizarre thinking, not thinking different.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benjamin Frost
Just because you don't see "success stories" for Apple Music doesn't mean much. More people go online to complain than compliment a service. I'd take that "lot of people" with a grain of salt.
I personally have had very few problems with Apple Music, but certainly it's version 1.0 right now. Keep in mind that Spotify took *years* to get something as basic as a music library (as opposed to having to make a playlist for each album you wanted to keep).
 
Also, it's pretty sad that Spotify was actually charging the higher amount to compensate for Apple tax.

This is the way business works. If a business gets charged a fee or tax, they pass it on to you. If it's not obvious like this one was, that's because it's built into other pricing.

It's pretty sad Apple charges 30% no matter what, and is completely inflexible. They could probably cover costs with 5% and still make something.
 
People were actually paying $12.99 for a service that costs $9.99? Also, it's pretty sad that Spotify was actually charging the higher amount to compensate for Apple tax.

I wish every developer would do that, and list the fee as a separate item. What's sad is people agreed to pay $36 a year to Apple to avoid a 5 minute transaction.
 
I'm actually surprised this is the extent Spotify is going to. I expected a free premium period and a rebate for current customers.

In any case, Apple or Spotify, $10/month is a screaming bargain for what I get out of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jstuts5797
Its unfortunate. Apple music doesn't hold a candle to spotify. The music is so slow to play. Sucks, i was hoping to get rid of spotify and free up some space.

I think you must have a slow connection, because Apple Music plays just as fast as Spotify for me -- on LTE or Wifi.

The only difference is that I have some locally-stored tracks on Spotify, which if course would start playing faster than if the song had to buffer on any network.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jstuts5797
30% in perpetuity is a bit ridiculous. I always thought that maybe Apple should just be entitled to the first month's payment and then the developer keeps the remaining payments.
Imagine you own a popular shopping mall in a busy, growing town.
A business wants to setup shop in your mall.

Do you,
A) Charge them one months rent equal to their first month takings, then let them stay rent free indefinitely.

B) Charge them the same rate rent as all the other shops in your mall...
 
They will survive. Spotify just needs to work on their navigation issues and tighten their UI.

Apple Music, as it stands now, is broken, as my experience will note:

QRUWH8pl.png


My own music is greyed out and not available for me to download MY OWN TUNES. Artwork doesn't bother to show up.

UwUJQfcl.png


As noted above, some artwork doesn't bother to show up. The view for an artist for having multiple albums is nice though, but it doesn't always stick, as we'll see.

Kt5gEU3l.png


Yep, multiple albums by an artist sometimes shows up as a list, then the next album and song list.

g3T3ovBl.png


Again, I don't have access to music I OWN. This is greyed out.

AI7GO0Zl.png


Another case of the wrong album art or none at all.

BkND9apl.png


Wrong album art and some tracks greyed out preventing access to MY OWN music.



I use Apple Music and I'm very happy with it. Apple Music is not error free, but I believe much of your problems come from user error.
Example: Your complaint about no album artwork on for some of your music. If the album was named correctly then the artwork would show. You have "4:21...The Day After" listed as "4.21...The Day After" and "Tical 2000: Judgement Day" listed as "Tical 2000 - Judgement Day"
Both are user error
As for the greyed out music. Go into Settings and turn on iCloud Music Library.
 
The number of customers Spotify retains will amount to something very measurable though.

Unfortunately they'll lose money on every single one of those users.

I would rather that they stay in business, if nothing else but to keep all other streaming services competitive.
 
This is the way business works. If a business gets charged a fee or tax, they pass it on to you. If it's not obvious like this one was, that's because it's built into other pricing.

It's pretty sad Apple charges 30% no matter what, and is completely inflexible. They could probably cover costs with 5% and still make something.

Part of the "cost" is building the TOTAL ECOSYSTEM that brings clients to the store, not just the store. Funny how people don'T get that. You're saying that a company built a subway line that brings in X people through and then rent out a space in this sparkly station, they should just charge for what it cost them to pay electricity and heat beyond the first month because lets face it (sic), that's all they did anyway! You would have had all those people at your shop anyway without their help!!
 
I use Apple Music and I'm very happy with it. Apple Music is not error free, but I believe much of your problems come from user error.
Example: Your complaint about no album artwork on for some of your music. If the album was named correctly then the artwork would show. You have "4:21...The Day After" listed as "4.21...The Day After" and "Tical 2000: Judgement Day" listed as "Tical 2000 - Judgement Day"
Both are user error
As for the greyed out music. Go into Settings and turn on iCloud Music Library.

A classic case of PEBCAK here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: prasand
It would have been but the way they organize music is bizarre. I like how Spotify separates the Playlists from the actual library. That way I'm not scrolling through a bunch of "albums" that only have 1 song in them just because I added a playlist. I have a TON of playlists which is why I subscribe to these services so that's possibly HUNDREDS of 1 song "albums" I have to scroll through before I get to a real full fledged album. Sure I can search for said album, but I would have to remember them. Spotify makes this easy with the My Music library feature.

Beats used to do this as well, so I'm not sure why Apple Music is mixing the two. Therefore, after a day, I knew the services wasn't going to work for me, especially after seeing changed artwork and my own music not available for me to download. That alone defeats the purchase.

I don't understand why you didn't use the tabs at the top of the My Music section that allow you to switch between Library and Playlists. Wouldn't selecting Playlists solve your problem? Just trying to understand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jstuts5797
I get emails from developers after purchasing apps on Mac and iOS, so I assumed my email was being shared with them already. But, I believe you have to create a Spotify account or login via Facebook, etc. and Spotify gets your email that way.

I don't know, I've got well over a hundred iOS apps, and if those developers all had my email address I'm sure I'd know about it. I read here that Facebook and others have been sniffing on our phones to figure out what apps we have installed, so perhaps you have been the victim of dubious ad targeting in that way.

I haven't used Spotify so I didn't know the sign-up process. I signed up to Netflix via my AppleTV and it certainly seemed like I and Netflix were being kept apart with Apple in the middle. I didn't get any emails from Netflix until after I moved my subscription to Netflix direct. I guess it's different with the Spotify app.
 
People were actually paying $12.99 for a service that costs $9.99? Also, it's pretty sad that Spotify was actually charging the higher amount to compensate for Apple tax.

Spotify is still loosing money so they really can't just absorb Apple's 30% cut. Therefore, for them to have their service as in-app purchase they need to price it higher.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.