Spotify accuses Apple of unfair competition
Streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have long criticized the fact that they have to give a portion of their revenue to Apple when users sign up for subscriptions on the iPhone. Now, market leader Spotify has had enough and is filing a complaint with the European Commission.
Apple has introduced rules in its App Store that limit consumer choice and slow down innovation, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said Wednesday.
In Apple's App Store - and also on other download platforms such as Google's Play Store for Android devices - it is common for app providers to get 70 percent of the revenue, while 30 percent remains with the operator. This also applies to purchases within apps. For subscription revenues, Apple lowers the levy to 15 percent from the second year on.
Music streaming providers have long expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that they have to hand over a portion of subscription revenues to Apple, while the group gets the entire amount on its rival service. "If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially make our premium membership significantly more expensive than Apple Music," Ek criticized.
For a while, Spotify offered more expensive subscriptions in the iPhone app than on the web. In the meantime, it is no longer possible to take out a premium subscription on the iPhone. The video streaming service Netflix also stopped offering new customers the option of purchasing a subscription directly in the app at the end of last year.
Apple is making life more difficult for Spotify because the music service doesn't use the iPhone company's payment system, Ek wrote. For example, he said, Apple regularly blocked app updates and kept Spotify out of the company's own products, such as its Siri assistance software, the HomePod connected speaker and the Apple Watch computer watch. It also said it was limiting its ability to communicate with users.
"We don't want special treatment," Ek wrote, pointing out that ride-hailing service Uber or food delivery service Deliveroo, for example, also don't have to pay levies on individual transactions in their respective apps.
Spotify ended the past quarter with 96 million paying subscription customers, 9 million more than three months earlier. Together with the free version, Spotify came to 207 million users. Apple Music, number two in the market, has more than 50 million paying users according to the latest figures - the iPhone company does not have a free version. (SDA)
