They don't have to have to go to the App Store, because they didn't have to buy an iPhone. They could've bought one of the other 99% of current phones on the market. This is really getting ridiculous.
No they don't. Obviously I have not seen their books but I am 100% sure they do cross-charge the Apple Music cost center. This is accounting 101 and there a butt ton of laws around internal accounting. They are paying the commission. The fact that the parent body of both Apple Music and the App Store is Apple is irrelevant. Apple Music has a profit margin to meet. If corporate has set a 13% EBIDTA on Apple Music and the music service is able to meet that target at $7 per subscriber, that all is good. If they cannot, then they have to raise the subscription costs.
How is Apple Music integrated? It is just an app and be removed just like every other optional app on the phone. Siri can now send all requests to Spotify if you choose.
Ironically, you just made the point against opening up the store. I can use the App Store to find and download Spotify, then when I am checking out the subscriptions I just "whip out [my] phone" (OK, slide over to Safari) and check the price on the Spotify.com. Then I am using the App Store as Spotify's "free showroom."
How was your comment pro-consumer? Consumers can subscribe to Spotify over the web, whether they have an iOS device or Android. Consumers have wider interests than simply yes/no to Spotify subscriptions being accessible with one or two less finger movements to go out to the web, and those interests include the security of the App Store. Frankly the security of the App Store is a much bigger issue to real consumers, and in many cases dictates the choice of Apple or Android. A genuinely pro-consumer comment would have taken that into account
Google also offers YouTube music. So will Spotify also scream anti competitive to Google?
In my country, Spotify made deals with carriers so their usage won’t use data quota on certain plans, or have specific cheap data plans just for Spotify use. Yeah, talk about net neutrality. Nobody talking about this anti competitive move.
Have you been to a grocery store? They offer their own private brand of the same products like cereals, canned foods, and even medications, for a lot less of the branded ones, and they put them side by side on the shelves. So where’s the anti competitive yelling against the grocery store chains?
Yes. Likely lack of interest, but more significantly patents, of which many no doubt are owned by Apple.
Well, realistically, they’re one of the two major mobile platforms.
I think Spotify can direct people. They just cannot link to it. They can put on their app - go to our website to sign up. They just cannot provide a direct link. But I could be wrong.
Most of the component patents are owned by many companies, namely Qualcomm for modems. Did you miss Apple bowing down to Qualcomm in their lawsuits? Apple is not the issue in this particular case.
The fact that Spotify is not doing it means they do have concerns that their own product won’t carry their customers. And I’m sure majority of Spotify users are free tier users. And going Android only will put Spotify head to head with YouTube music, which is part of Google certification that it is pre-installed on all Android phones with GMS. Strange that Spotify never mention that about Google…
as i just said. the comment was not related to spotify
This would be such an over reach by the FCC it would be absurd. This would be completely beyond their legal duties and the courts would throw this out in a second.
Amid the ongoing legal battle between Epic Games and Apple, Spotify's chief legal officer and head of global affairs Horacio Gutierrez penned an anti-App Store op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, where he summarizes Spotify's issues Apple.
Gutierrez says that Spotify is one of the few companies that insists Apple is a "ruthless bully that uses its dominance to hobble competitors."
Spotify has long been upset with Apple's App Store fees, as the 15 to 30 percent cut that Apple takes from subscriptions means that Spotify has to either raise its prices for those who sign up via the App Store or decline to offer subscriptions on iOS at all, which is what Spotify has opted for.
Apple's "antisteering" rules prevent Spotify from directing iPhone and iPad customers to the Spotify website to sign up, which Spotify argues gives Apple Music some major advantages.
Gutierrez points out the many regulatory issues that Apple is facing in Europe and the United States. The European Commission in April found that Apple breached EU competition law with Apple Music, and in April, the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee questioned Apple's App Store policies. Spotify, Tile, and others attended the latter hearing and said that if Apple's App Store rules aren't changed, Apple will take over the internet, "limiting innovation, squashing small businesses, and all but eliminating customer choice."
Spotify is asking the U.S. to speed up its regulatory initiatives against Apple with "urgent, narrowly tailored updates" to antitrust law to "end such egregious abuses."
Gutierrez says that Spotify isn't asking for special treatment, but wants "fair treatment," and he sums up his piece by stating that Apple's "ability to strangle its competitors is unprecedented." He says that those in a position "to do something" have now "seen past Apple's facade" and are now acting on the behalf of "innovators and consumers around the world."
Article Link: Spotify Legal Chief: 'Apple's Ability to Strangle its Competitors is Unprecedented'
Stop comparing it to a physical store
