After Swedish music streaming service Spotify went public with its complaint to the European Commission about how Apple has favored Apple Music over Spotify in the App Store (see “Spotify Asks the European Commission to Make Apple Play Fair,” 13 March 2019), Apple has posted a public response. Unlike other such statements from Apple, this one skates around the very real concerns with the App Store, devolves into irrelevant rhetoric, and has drawn numerous criticisms from Apple developers and commentators. It’s an impressive piece of PR, but one that might end up doing more harm than good.
Comments About Apple Responds to Spotify
Join the discussion in the TidBITS Discourse forum
Participants
Is it the same procedure for all material (except what Apple mentions) bought through App Store apps? If one pays outside of an app, but then get access to material through an app, is that also charged by Apple? (Maybe should know this, but have never thought of buying any media through a streaming service or iTunes store.) Thankfully CD & Vinyls are getting ever bigger, but soon I guess it might get difficult to transfer non-streamed media to iPhone (at which time iPhone will no longer be a relevant product). First thing I tried when Apple announced the Files app on iOS was of course to see if I could now easily transfer music independent of iTunes to the iPhone, but no way, so not much value again in the new features, like so often these days.
In theory, yes, if an iOS app is selling digital material of any sort, it must go through Apple’s in-app purchase system. If you can buy material entirely outside of the app, then Apple won’t take a cut or have a say in it (but the app won’t be able to encourage such outside purchases in any way).