Spotify says Apple won’t approve a new version of its app

http://www.recode.net/2016/6/30/12067578/spotify-apple-app-store-rejection?utm_campaign=www.recode.net&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

by djug • 10 years ago

81 88 10 years ago

recode.net

IBM• 10 years ago

This is a game being played out in public. It wasn't a coincidence that Elizabeth Warren mentioned Apple Music yesterday in a speech (among other tech companies).

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/spotify-makes-case-aga...

http://www.recode.net/2016/6/29/12060804/elizabeth-warren-ap...

skynetv2• 10 years ago

How Apple is not hit by anti-trust cases across the world on a range of topics is baffling!

kartD• 10 years ago

Because they aren't a monopoly, they have like 15-20% of the smartphone market. Only Google would have to worry about anti-trust cases

digi_owl5• 10 years ago

To hell with this "monopoly" crap. The term do not apply to the topic at all, and never has.

All it matters is that a company, or groups of companies, are big enough to distort customer choice to their benefit. This either directly in said market, or by being large in a related market that they can use as leverage.

WayneBro• 10 years ago

In the US it's more like 40 to 50%

itsdrewmiller• 10 years ago

Depends on what market you are looking at. They have 2/3 of the mobile app market by revenue...

wvenable5• 10 years ago

How does this work in brick & mortar businesses? Is there precedent for forcing a retailer to stock a particular product?

digi_owl5• 10 years ago

Things may get hairy if said retailer have their own brand of products that they present front and center. Or in some way play favorites with the brands they carry. But there are not really any hard and fast rules for this, similarly to how there are not hard and fast rules regarding corruption.

digi_owl5• 10 years ago

Because no entity has filed a complaint...

JohnTHaller5• 10 years ago

Because outside of silicon valley, Apple is a much smaller #2 to Android. Same with their laptop/desktop business. This is why Apple gets to engage in behavior Microsoft never even dreamed of with Windows. Can you imagine the hubbub if Windows on the desktop only had the Microsoft app store and didn't permit any other app store? Or only allowed Internet Explorer and didn't allow any other browsers unless they were just UIs and skins on top of IE? Or locked Windows down so you couldn't even install an app unless it was through their app store? Apple gets away with all of this on iOS because they're not a monopoly, so they can engage in all kinds of anti-competitive behavior as long as their customers don't mind and leave for Android. So far, they don't.

edko• 10 years ago

There is a rule that forbids OS X app developers from selling an app that is in the app store at a lesser price somewhere else. I am really surprised that this is not considered anti-competitive price fixing.

RKearney2• 10 years ago

The app is rejected because Spotify tried to bypass the In-App Purchases system to obtain payment information form subscribers, thus bypassing the 30% cut Apple takes.

This isn't a new requirement at all. Spotify is free to remove signups all together from their App, requiring users already have signed up for an account on their website. This has always been an option.

raverbashing• 10 years ago

And this would be fine, except that Apple Music has an advantage here, because they don't get the 30% fee (or allow the user to sign up through the app)

Spotify chose to fight this fight and I guess it's good for them

SG-• 10 years ago

Well they did build out the entire platform themselves.

phn• 10 years ago

Yeap, bringing Apple Music to this discussion is disingenuous.

The article is pretty light on details, but it seems Apple is simply asking Spotify to follow the rules all developers have to follow.

ape4• 10 years ago

Ignoring Apple Music is disingenuous

foota• 10 years ago

It didn't sound to me like spotify is directly signing up people through the app, rather that they are requesting them to sign up via the website.

pbarnes_1• 10 years ago

That's not how the rule works.

You can sign people up. They can upgrade on your own site. As long as you don't tell them they can do that in the app.

Spotify don't. They were communicating the promotion via email, outside the app, where Apple has no jurisdiction.

A tonne of companies aren't paying Apple 30%. It's basically on a case by case basis -- if Apple likes you or not. They don't like Spotify.

developer23• 10 years ago

The rule and the fee are complete bullshit. 30% isn't even remotely viable. They should be charging equivalent to transaction fees, which would tally below 5%. Hopefully one day someone will find a law with which they can challenge the fee's insanity in court. Anti-competitiveness seems like the appropriate avenue; we just have to wait for a company to try their hand at it.

At a bare minimum, apps must be allowed to explain to users in-app that they can reduce their payments by paying outside the app.

gshulegaard• 10 years ago

They don't like Spotify.

They don't like competition.

FTFY

orkj• 10 years ago

No, this is not true.

At the company I work, we have an app for a customer where you can purchase things on their site. For a long while you could sign up in the app until one day where apple literally said (on a super minor bugfix upgrade): "If you are signing up users in your app, we are contributing to your revenue. We do not want to do that, unless you are using in app purchases".

This particular app could not use IAP for technical reasons, so we had to remove sign up from the app.

That is how the rule works

edit: Although, your point about the case by case basis could apply here, although this is not on a spotify scale, I assure you :)

Dotnaught• 10 years ago

Apple's App Store Review Guidelines used to warn against taking complaints to the press:

"If your App is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/2016...

The current version, published on June 13, 2016, omits that statement:

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

developer23• 10 years ago

It's about the scale of your app. If you are small fish, going to the press isn't going to accomplish anything. Spotify can afford to press the matter. What worse can Apple do to them? Remove their app from the store? Spotify can afford to litigate against that kind of anti-competition.

Longhanks• 10 years ago

It's not anti competition. There are app guidelines which say "you mustn't work around iTunes payments". They exist since many, many years. Spotify chose to comply with them. Apple didn't suddenly change them. It's not anti competitive from Apple if Spotify NOW chooses to call them unfair.

Above that, it's Apple's store, with Apple's rules, on Apple's OS. You either comply with the rules or you don't get to put your app on the App Store.

mikeash7• 10 years ago

That guideline was total bullshit anyway. Running to the press frequently helps. Apple doesn't like it, obviously, but "it never helps" was a blatant lie.

Obviously, it's best to exhaust other avenues first, but if Apple is being stupid and won't budge, taking it public can be a great way to get results. I bet it'll work here.

barravian• 10 years ago

Also, to be fair, guidelines and implied threats like that don't tend to apply to companies that can mobilize PR like Spotify. If you were some small time developer, I could easily see Apple just crushing you for trying to make them look bad.

rck4042• 10 years ago

For all the openness Apple claims, developers and companies should be able to talk to press or write blogs about what they want. Apple is benefiting from these apps and tries to silence the voices of arguments. This is pure North Korean kind of rule that only Apple and Kim Jong would approve of.

eric_h• 10 years ago

Openness from for profit companies is a rare beast, and only recently are companies actually starting to approve of openness as they realize its benefits. Putting Apple and North Korea as the only entities that disapprove of running to the press is disingenuous at best.

Artemis2• 10 years ago

Does Apple claim openness? They make APIs, developers who make apps for *OS use them and bend to their rules.

djrogers• 10 years ago

Interesting that Spotify would start pushing this issue so hard following immediately on the heels of Apple reducing their cut to 15% for subscriptions after the first year [1].

There had been rumors of Apple extending this reduction to some companies for a while now, wonder if Spotify had been left out of that?

[1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/whats-ne...

endlessvoid94• 10 years ago

This is a PR stunt.

praveenweb• 10 years ago

I think sometime last year, Amazon removed the sales of Apple TV and Chrome cast from their platform. The platform decides what is profitable for them. After all the consumers and the businesses have their choices open on what to use. But i seriously want Apple to be diplomatic in this issue and allow whatever is best for everyone.

Spotify says Apple won’t approve a new version of its app

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