“Spotify says Apple is making it harder for the streaming music company to compete by blocking a new version of its iPhone app,” Peter Kafka reports for Recode.
“In a letter sent this week to Apple’s top lawyer, Spotify says Apple is ‘causing grave harm to Spotify and its customers’ by rejecting an update to Spotify’s iOS app,” Kafka reports. “The letter says Apple turned down a new version of the app while citing ‘business model rules’ and demanded that Spotify use Apple’s billing system if ‘Spotify wants to use the app to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions.'”
“The letter, sent by Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell on June 26, suggests that Spotify intends to use the standoff as ammunition in its fight over Apple’s rules governing subscription services that use its App store,” Kafka reports. “Spotify has distributed copies of the letter to some Congressional staff in Washington, D.C. Yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Apple, Amazon and Google for what she called anticompetitive practices; Warren said that ‘Apple has long used its control of iOS to squash competition in music.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh ok. Grave harm is the point, dummies. And it’s perfectly legal, future roadkill.
You know the Apple’s App Store rules, Spotify whiners. If you don’t like them, go pound sand.
As we wrote on Wednesday: These are Apple’s platforms, built from the ground up. Apple owns them. Hence, Apple can charge what they like for the use of their App Store infrastructure.
Anyone who doesn’t like it, including Spotify or… oh, we don’t know, the developers of the “Make Me Indian” app 😉 can go to other smartphone platforms, including one with 82.6% market share as measured by units shipped which — drumroll, please — neatly negates any and all imperiously vapid claims of Apple having a “monopoly” in smartphones.
SEE ALSO:
Elizabeth Warren accuses Apple of monopolistic-like actions; Spotify concurs – June 29, 2016
Apple Music turns one year old, already has half as many paying members as Spotify – June 29, 2016
Apple Music accumulating subscribers much more quickly than Spotify or Pandora – June 21, 2016
Spotify dims as Apple Music shines – April 27, 2016
Apple Music nabs 10 million subscribers in 6 months, which took Spotify 6 years – January 10, 2016
Oh ok, Spotify listeners are upgrading to Apple Music – July 19, 2015
Spotify urges subscribers to stop paying through Apple’s App Store – July 9, 2015
Oh ok, Spotify: Apple’s iOS 8.4 adoption already at 37 percent – July 7, 2015
Apple Music could kill more than just Spotify, it could kill music labels, too – June 25, 2015
Spotify founder: Oh ok, we don’t need to be number one in music streaming – June 11, 2015
Why Apple Music will gut and publicly execute Spotify – June 10, 2015
Spotify CEO claims to be ‘ok’ with Apple Music – June 9, 2015
Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue: Apple Music gunning for Spotify, YouTube, and terrestrial radio – June 9, 2015
Something about Apple Music betraying Apple’s brilliance by ignoring ‘The Harry Potter Theory of Marketing’ or some such nonsense – June 9, 2015
Bob Lefsetz on Apple Music: What team is Jimmy Iovine on? – June 9, 2015
Apple Music’s huge advantage over Spotify – June 9, 2015
Apple Music is a major mess and it won’t beat Spotify or something – June 9, 2015
When Apple Music arrives, what happens to iTunes Match? – June 9, 2015
What Apple Music says about how Apple views musicians – June 8, 2015
Apple’s revolutionary Apple Music just might prove its skeptics wrong – June 8, 2015
Apple unveils revolutionary Apple Music service – June 8, 2015
As long as these Apple App Store rules and conditions are applied equally across the board these losing whiners have no case.
They appear to be “Spotifying” their pants over this.
These rules affect all of us developers alike. Nothing to see here.
You don’t like the house rules Spotify?
There’s the door, don’t let it hit you in the ass on the way out.
That’s exactly the attitude that will cause the best developers to prioritize Android, at Apple’s peril.
Spotify remains as good or better than Apple Music. By actively disadvantaging other music sellers, Apple is just acting like Microsoft. Pull your blinders off, people.
Paul, Mike, Todd…..whatever name you give yourself for each of your troll posts……
Apple is not forcing them to play by a different set of rules then any other developer on the App Store. What Spotify wants is a special set of rules just for them. How exactly is Apple “actively disadvantaging other music sellers”?
“the best developers to prioritize Android, at Apple’s peril”
Seriously? OMG, just give it a rest already.
I think the point of these types of suits is not unequal conditions among developers but unequal conditions between Apple/Google/Amazon and 3rd party developers’ Apps competing in similar services.
“Grave harm is the point” of Apple’s App Store?
Umm…. no.
While I support Apple’s right to regulate certain standards for Apps they distribute, MDN as usual is blindly waving the saber at anyone who challenges Apple’s OFTEN-unscrupulous methods.
Grave harm to Spotify is the point of Apple Music.
The rest of us got it instantly, genius.