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Spotify Updates iPhone App With Out-of-App Payment Options in U.S.
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True, I have no data. I'm just saying that I'd be hugely surprised if Apple had a lot of warm feelings towards it nowadays.
10-12 years ago - absolutely, as the App Store was revolutionary.
And let's just remember how important devs are to Apple and to the iPhone. Try removing all 3rd party apps from the iPhone and see how it feels. Now think of how Apple's attitude towards them stinks.
(btw - I'm not a dev, don't know any devs. I just don't like how modern Apple is behaving).
Yeah, this isn't true. They payout 70% of revenue same as Apple Music does.
Also neither service. "pays artists" they pay the rights holder.
reality is that you don't have any data to suggest most developers are unhappy.
Try removing the iOS platform and see how devs feel.
If they feel like they could easily just move over to Android, then they can easily do that today.
It's a mutual benefit. So Apple is drawing a line somewhere where users, Apple, and devs can meet in the middle.
Remember Made for iPhone. It was like a trusted mark that this device would work. For you, me and most folks on this forum probs not but there a lot of non-tech folks that just want to know the app has been verified.
If I wanted to downgrade to Spotify, then I would continue to use Apple’s App Store payment system regardless of what Spotify would want.
As planned, Spotify has updated its iPhone app in the U.S. with out-of-app pricing and subscription options for its Premium plans. The latest version of the app is now available in the App Store, and the added pricing information is rolling out.
Spotify users in the U.S. can now view pricing information for its Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans directly in the iPhone app, and there are buttons that lead to Spotify's website, where users can complete the payment process.
For many years, Spotify has not allowed users to subscribe to Premium plans directly in its iPhone app, as the company does not want to pay Apple's 30% commission on in-app purchases. That remains the case as of today, but Spotify is now permitted to show buttons and links pertaining to out-of-app payment options, without any limitations.
Spotify shared the following statement today:This monumental change comes after a U.S. judge ordered Apple to immediately allow apps to show this sort of information, as part of a lawsuit filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games. Apple is also no longer permitted to collect a 27% commission on those out-of-app purchases that are initiated through the App Store. Apple has complied with the order, but the company said it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal.
The judge enforced these requirements after finding Apple violated a 2021 injunction by imposing too many barriers on out-of-app payment options.
Many other popular iPhone apps will likely be updated with out-of-app subscription buttons and information in the U.S. over the coming days.
Article Link: Spotify Updates iPhone App With Out-of-App Payment Options in U.S.
I would not really care, as there are very few that I use. It has been many years since I purchased an application.
This is laughable.
AWS for example, charges $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB, decreasing to $0.085 for the next 40 TB and $0.07 for the next 100 TB. *These are price you or I would pay off the street, not a customer like Apple who probably pays half this.
Spotify App: 217.9 MB or 4.58 downloads per GB.
10 million download would = 2,179,000 MB or 2,179 GB.
That's $196 using the discounted rated. Spotify pays $300/year just to host the App.
I could afford to pay for Spotify's app downloads for the year. Meanwhile, there are millions upon millions of people who would NOT use an iPhone if Spotify were not an option for them. DO the math. Apple wants to sell iPhones, and the AppStore sells iPhones.
Well I would only purchase stuff that would have the logo. I do not care to use cheap Chinese junk.
There are many more people that simply do not care about Spotify.
Apple makes it much easier. The industry should follow Apple’s example to make things easy. However they do not because it is easy money where they do not do any work on the platform.
Downgrade? So tell me you've never used Spotify without telling me you've never used Spotify.
Apple Music should be the best out there. It's mind numbing that it's one of the worse.
The only thing Apple music has over it is "spacial audio" which is kind of limited (and coming to Spotify god knows when because they dance around a timeline), but Spotify has TONS more features and offerings like Audio books that more than make up for that. Not having to use a separate ad for Podcasts is also a win.
No, apps sell iPhones.
The app store does not. If it had never existed, users would be happy to install apps normally, by downloading them from developers' websites.
I think that developers develop for iOS now because of its size - not necessarily because they want to.
I get that you like Apple - I like Apple, else I wouldn't own so much of its gear for so long, nor would I be on this forum - but when a federal judge lays down the law and explains how they've tried to twist their way out of a legal ruling and moreover, one of their execs has lied under oath and has been referred for a a possible criminal investigation, I cannot see how anyone can possibly defend them over this.
Apple is not meeting in the middle. Apple is trying to say "here is the line, it is where it is, and if you don't like then. leave. Don't bother telling us what you think, because it doesn't matter."
It's not a two-way street.
I keep having this argument with my mother. Your phone (assuming you have an iPhone) is likely the most secure device you own because of how locked down it is from the perspective of apps (or websites) being able to access data from other apps, encryption at rest always enabled, etc. We can argue all day long about whether the locked down-ness is a good thing in general or not, but for this use case, it is very good.
Even if that wasn't the case, I don't think there's any empirical data to support the notion that using a website instead of an app is more secure. In fact, given how easy it is to get malware into the browsers' addon/extension stores, and there is no way to modify an app in the same way, I think there's a strong argument to be made that the app is inherently more secure. (Note I am not talking about a counterfeit app added to the App Store purporting to be your bank's app, but the security of using your bank's official app.)
Do you have a source for that? Yes, they were required to allow alternate app stores. I am not aware of anything requiring them to pay for those app stores' existence, bandwidth, etc. though. In other words, the alternate app stores are allowed to exist, but they don't use Apple's internet infrastructure to do so.
Yes, the structure of the app store is (and has always been) such that apps that do not charge anything in-app pay no fees to Apple, beyond the standard $100 per year. So to at least some degree, those that do offer paid apps or IAP are subsidizing those that don't.
Because cheap is not the same thing as free. There is ultimately a finite pipe, no matter what connection you're talking about. To increase the size of that pipe and/or add additional pipes costs money.
Whether it should cost more or less is left as an exercise for the reader, but the idea it should cost nothing is absurd.
Apples current practices ensure you need to keep buying them. Maybe now they’ll make them worth buying on their own merit.
Go on then.
In many countries one needs the app, to validate payments for example.Yes, it so much safer dealing with a banks directly on the web. Why not always use their website if you think it is so much safer dealing with them directly? After all, as of today, the UK government only lists 15,616 unregistered and unauthorized financial websites on the Financial Conduct Authority website.
FCA Warning List of unauthorised firms
Search our Warning List to find details of unauthorised firms and individuals that we’re aware of that aren’t allowed to operate in the UK. First published: 02/04/2016 Last updated: 20/05/2025 See all updateswww.fca.org.uk
Where is your data for the opposite then?
Spotify is by a long way the most popular streaming service.
Exactly. So basically games are subsidizing everything else.
But if this is about what it costs to run the App Store, using Apple’s IP, access to a customer base then why is it tied to in-app purchases? Why not come up with a something that applies to every app?
I didn't read your entire back and forth with the other commenter(s) but since you seem hell-bent on the idea that "most developers are happy"...
Nobody outside of Apple actually has that data (though there were some pointed barbs in Wednesday's ruling that indicate that Apple is fully aware of how unhappy the developer population is generally, and especially with certain of their rules).
That said, it really doesn't matter if it's 1 or 100 or 1 million developers that are unhappy. What matters more is if the type of developers who will evangelize your platform, spread the "good word" to others, and basically act as unpaid PR for you, are unhappy. And you don't have to look farther than this very site's news section to find example after example after example of those types of developers being unhappy. People like Michael Tsai, who has been a lifelong Apple user and has been developing Mac apps for decades, chronicle these problems on a near-daily basis.