4 ms·

What if Spotify makes it 27% more expensive to use Spotify on Apple?

by Moru 3y ago

BadHumans 3y ago
People would move to Apple Music which sounds great for Apple.
- internet101010 3y ago
  The playlist moat is deep at Spotify. Between ease of building playlists, sharing playlists, following playlists, and the "fresh finds" playlists that Spotify creates, it's tough to compete. I don't think very many people are going to go through that transition for a couple of bucks.
  - BadHumans 3y ago
    A playlist moat doesn't sound like a real thing. I don't know how the average user uses Spotify but aside from the playlist that Spotify generates, all the music I like goes in one massive playlist. I've never used Apple Music but if another service generated playlist for me I would just as easily listen to those.
    - nickthegreek 3y ago
      It 100% is a real thing, I dont even really understand the opposite. Users curate lists, and even share those. I am a YT Music user and that severely cuts down on my ability to find playlists that others have created compared to spotify. When I switched to YT Music, my partner was pissseed. I had to locate and run some python scripts to run to transfer over the playlists or we were gonna be switching back. There are people who have Youtube Premium & Spotify because of their playlist/social lockin. Spotify Wrapped alone keeps people from jumping ship.
      - BadHumans 3y ago
        We are on opposite sides of this because playlist as as social feature is not something I can understand. However, every streaming platform has copied Spotify Wrapped. Hell, Steam sends me a Spotify Wrapped type email about the games I played at the end of the year now.
        nickthegreek 3y ago
        The YT Music equivalent to Spotify Wrapped is a complete joke.
stuaxo 3y ago
Probably not allowed to ic you want to be on the appstore.
t_sawyer 3y ago
Then people will use Apple Music which is exactly the leverage Apple has. Apple let Spotify test the market of music streaming. Entered the market at basically the same price. Then charges Spotify 27% to compete with them directly.
- puppymaster 3y ago
  but thanks to Epic court case Spotify can now put a big fat banner on their app that says 'go to this link to subscribe to Spotify premium'.
  - eddd-ddde 3y ago
    Does that mean that subscribing on the app has a commission but subscribing on a web site on the browser app does not?
    - reilly3000 3y ago
      Right, if a user subscribes via app it uses Apple’s payment system and Apple is paying merchant processing fees, vs if they subscribe directly with Spotify they handle processing fees, chargebacks, support etc. The ~30% was relatively reasonable when the App Store launched with most transactions being $0.99 one-time purchases, but isn’t very equitable for things like $15/mo subscriptions.
    - Jcampuzano2 3y ago
      If they go to the browser themself - without clicking a link in the app - to subscribe, then no commission has to be paid. However, if they clicked a link from within the app itself to subscribe then they must pay the commission, even if the payment eventually happened from within a browser. In other words, no matter how the subscription/payment happened, if it originated from within the app (whether via a link to an external site or via apples payment system) you must pay a commision.
      - blashyrk 3y ago
rapfaria 3y ago
They'd have to make it 36% more expensive to break even
apozem 3y ago
It was 30% more expensive if you signed up on the iOS app. I'm not sure if it still is. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/higher-costs-per-month-for-spotify-premium-via-app-store/td-p/878937 https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/higher-costs-per-m...
- seaal 3y ago
  They just don’t let you upgrade from the free plan at all. Change was rather recent. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/05/spotify-subscribers-no-app-store-payment/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/05/spotify-subscribers-no-...
simonbarker87 3y ago
I’d still use Spotify since Apple Music is such a bad app.

What if Spotify makes it 27% more expensive to use Spotify on Apple?

by Moru 3y ago

What if Spotify makes it 27% more expensive to use Spotify on Apple?

BadHumans 3y ago

People would move to Apple Music which sounds great for Apple.

internet101010 3y ago
The playlist moat is deep at Spotify. Between ease of building playlists, sharing playlists, following playlists, and the "fresh finds" playlists that Spotify creates, it's tough to compete. I don't think very many people are going to go through that transition for a couple of bucks.
- BadHumans 3y ago
  A playlist moat doesn't sound like a real thing. I don't know how the average user uses Spotify but aside from the playlist that Spotify generates, all the music I like goes in one massive playlist. I've never used Apple Music but if another service generated playlist for me I would just as easily listen to those.
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    It 100% is a real thing, I dont even really understand the opposite. Users curate lists, and even share those. I am a YT Music user and that severely cuts down on my ability to find playlists that others have created compared to spotify. When I switched to YT Music, my partner was pissseed. I had to locate and run some python scripts to run to transfer over the playlists or we were gonna be switching back. There are people who have Youtube Premium & Spotify because of their playlist/social lockin. Spotify Wrapped alone keeps people from jumping ship.
    - BadHumans 3y ago
      We are on opposite sides of this because playlist as as social feature is not something I can understand. However, every streaming platform has copied Spotify Wrapped. Hell, Steam sends me a Spotify Wrapped type email about the games I played at the end of the year now.
      - nickthegreek 3y ago
        The YT Music equivalent to Spotify Wrapped is a complete joke.

stuaxo 3y ago

Probably not allowed to ic you want to be on the appstore.

t_sawyer 3y ago

Then people will use Apple Music which is exactly the leverage Apple has. Apple let Spotify test the market of music streaming. Entered the market at basically the same price. Then charges Spotify 27% to compete with them directly.

puppymaster 3y ago
but thanks to Epic court case Spotify can now put a big fat banner on their app that says 'go to this link to subscribe to Spotify premium'.
- eddd-ddde 3y ago
  Does that mean that subscribing on the app has a commission but subscribing on a web site on the browser app does not?
  - reilly3000 3y ago
    Right, if a user subscribes via app it uses Apple’s payment system and Apple is paying merchant processing fees, vs if they subscribe directly with Spotify they handle processing fees, chargebacks, support etc. The ~30% was relatively reasonable when the App Store launched with most transactions being $0.99 one-time purchases, but isn’t very equitable for things like $15/mo subscriptions.
  - Jcampuzano2 3y ago
    If they go to the browser themself - without clicking a link in the app - to subscribe, then no commission has to be paid. However, if they clicked a link from within the app itself to subscribe then they must pay the commission, even if the payment eventually happened from within a browser. In other words, no matter how the subscription/payment happened, if it originated from within the app (whether via a link to an external site or via apples payment system) you must pay a commision.
    - blashyrk 3y ago

rapfaria 3y ago

They'd have to make it 36% more expensive to break even

apozem 3y ago

It was 30% more expensive if you signed up on the iOS app. I'm not sure if it still is. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/higher-costs-per-month-for-spotify-premium-via-app-store/td-p/878937 https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/higher-costs-per-m...

seaal 3y ago
They just don’t let you upgrade from the free plan at all. Change was rather recent. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/05/spotify-subscribers-no-app-store-payment/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/05/spotify-subscribers-no-...

simonbarker87 3y ago

I’d still use Spotify since Apple Music is such a bad app.