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Apple’s essential claims: 1. 15-30% is a fair “contribution to maintaining the App Store ecosystem” which has led to Spotify’s “dramatic growth.” 2. Spotify i

Apple’s essential claims: 1. 15-30% is a fair “contribution to maintaining the App Store ecosystem” which has led to Spotify’s “dramatic growth.” 2. Spotify is greedy and bad, just look at how they squeeze artists, unlike us. The second point is really weak considering that paying such a high fee to Apple, which Apple Music itself doesn’t have to pay, might force Spotify to take it out of the artists’ end to stay afloat. And as to the first point, Apple makes it sound like the App Store was the reason for Spotify’s success, so it’s only fair they take a healthy cut. But there’s no other choice on iOS. It’s not clear if discovery in the App Store was essential to Spotify’s growth or if it was just the only way to install software on iPhones. One need only look at macOS to determine how important the App Store is to discovery and growth. Many, perhaps most developers bypass it.

bunnycorn 8y ago
Spotify isn't paying ANY fee to Apple. Spotify is a free App and there are no IAPs. All costumers that use Spotify in Apple devices have to pay through the WWW, carriers, gift cards, etc. Spotify is a piece of shit that wants to use Apple's network for free. Because they know people trust Apple with their CCs more than them.
ninkendo 8y ago
> paying such a high fee to Apple, which Apple Music itself doesn’t have to pay, might force Spotify to take it out of the artists’ end to stay afloat. bunnycom's reply to you is flagged dead, but there's an important rebuke to that claim: Spotify doesn't use iAP for subscriptions any more, and Apple gets no money off of Spotify today except for pre-existing subscriptions from before Spotify disabled iAP: https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/subscription_information/spotify-through-the-app-store/ https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/subscrip... So I think it's a bit specious to say Spotify has to squeeze artists more to pay Apple's fees, when they're not even paying those fees any more. And I'd venture to say the iAP process really does help growth of apps like Spotify: it lets you use a single credit card you have linked to your iTunes account for all in-app purchases with just TouchID/FaceID, and is a much lower-friction way of paying money to an app than filling in your credit card information into every app, having to change them all when your card expires, etc. I wouldn't say it's worth a 30% (or even 15%) cut, but it's not worthless.
- abalone 8y ago
  > I wouldn't say it's worth a 30% (or even 15%) cut, but it's not worthless. Sure. By that logic Apple also “helps the growth” of Uber by offering the same convenient payment method in the form of Apple Pay. Their fee for that: 0.15%. Charging 15-30% is clearly about more than “helping growth”. And Apple isn’t just charging for the convenience of IAP. They’re also frustrating Spotify from collecting payment any other way. The specious argument here is saying that strangling premium subscription growth doesn’t hurt a company’s finances.

bunnycorn 8y ago

Spotify isn't paying ANY fee to Apple. Spotify is a free App and there are no IAPs. All costumers that use Spotify in Apple devices have to pay through the WWW, carriers, gift cards, etc. Spotify is a piece of shit that wants to use Apple's network for free. Because they know people trust Apple with their CCs more than them.

ninkendo 8y ago

> paying such a high fee to Apple, which Apple Music itself doesn’t have to pay, might force Spotify to take it out of the artists’ end to stay afloat. bunnycom's reply to you is flagged dead, but there's an important rebuke to that claim: Spotify doesn't use iAP for subscriptions any more, and Apple gets no money off of Spotify today except for pre-existing subscriptions from before Spotify disabled iAP: https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/subscription_information/spotify-through-the-app-store/ https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/subscrip... So I think it's a bit specious to say Spotify has to squeeze artists more to pay Apple's fees, when they're not even paying those fees any more. And I'd venture to say the iAP process really does help growth of apps like Spotify: it lets you use a single credit card you have linked to your iTunes account for all in-app purchases with just TouchID/FaceID, and is a much lower-friction way of paying money to an app than filling in your credit card information into every app, having to change them all when your card expires, etc. I wouldn't say it's worth a 30% (or even 15%) cut, but it's not worthless.

abalone 8y ago
> I wouldn't say it's worth a 30% (or even 15%) cut, but it's not worthless. Sure. By that logic Apple also “helps the growth” of Uber by offering the same convenient payment method in the form of Apple Pay. Their fee for that: 0.15%. Charging 15-30% is clearly about more than “helping growth”. And Apple isn’t just charging for the convenience of IAP. They’re also frustrating Spotify from collecting payment any other way. The specious argument here is saying that strangling premium subscription growth doesn’t hurt a company’s finances.