Spotify lashed out against Apple and the AppStore policies, namely the Apple tax. There are more claims, really venting about the app experience on iOS as well as conflict in competition.
Spotify also offers thousands of Podcasts, including originals that you can't find anywhere else. The Spotify app for Apple Watch lets you stream Spotify directly from your wrist (Spotify Premium and Apple Watch Series 3 or later required), use your voice to control the playback with Siri, and to connect and control playback to any other.
Install iOS iPA files, tweaks and apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. All applications are free to download, without any redirects. Spotify is one of the most high-profile apps on the App Store, and it finally made the jump with version 8.5.80 of its iOS app. Unfortunately, the new widget isn't all that powerful or useful. The Spotify iPad app features full artist bios, search as you type, a mini-playback bar, a full screen playback screen, crossfade support and more. Playlists are displayed using a 4 grid box of album covers which is visually nice to look at.
They are not alone. BaseCamp generated buzz about Apple's AppStore practices when it's Hey.com app was rejected.
Collectively the Spotify claims point out major issues not only with Apple's AppStore, but mobile app store distribution issues.
Spotify has made a dedicated website to express their arguments call Time to Play Fair.
The store model is not favorable to the businesses developing native apps and many are questioning if they really need applications as more and more are migrating their client strategies to progressive web applications.
'In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience—essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers.' Daniel Ek Updatebootlooping phone 3u tools.
According to research done by the New York Times Ek and Spotify are not the only company hurt by Apple's App Store practices. The study shows that since Apple began placing its own apps in the App Store Apple has dominated many of the most popular search terms. What's worse is the search results have been stacked with Apple apps not related to the search intent.
![App App](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134045313/969081334.png)
But as Apple has become one of the largest competitors on a platform that it controls, suspicions that the company has been tipping the scales in its own favor are at the heart of antitrust complaints in the United States, Europe and Russia.
New York Times
Let me list Spotify's claims:
- 30% Purchase Tax
- Limiting Communication with Users that Pay Outside the AppStore
- Blocking Experience Enhancing Upgrade
- Routinely Blocking Application Updates
- Locking Competitors out of Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch
- Apple Customers Do Not Have A Payment Choice
Apple released a response to Ek's claims, which of course denies everything.
'At its core, the App Store is a safe, secure platform where users can have faith in the apps they discover and the transactions they make. And developers, from first-time engineers to larger companies, can rest assured that everyone is playing by the same set of rules. ' - Apple
I am not someone who knows the details of the interactions between Apple and Spotify. So I can't speak to the availability of the platform features and what payouts the services make to the artists.
I do know more and more application brands are phasing out their dependence on app stores and migrating to a PWA strategy. Netflix fired a brutal punch to Apple over Christmas when they pulled the ability for new subscriptions to use Apple as a payment service.
Netflix earned over $850M in subscriptions via the AppStore in 2018, generating between $130 and $260M for Apple. In fact subscription services like Netflix and Spotify generate a significant amount of AppStore revenue, approximately $3.7B from the top 10 apps to be fair.
The disagreement only heightens the appeal progressive web applications have, even on iOS, where support is still somewhat limited.
I am receiving an increasing number of inquiries about replacing native apps with PWAs. Many fear issues highlighted by Spotify's claims. Others have either suffered a '4.2.6' removal or denial.
The more I discuss the merits of progressive web applications over native apps with clients and potential clients I have formulated a simple way to determine if you should develop and ship a mobile app:
'Does your app help sell iPhones or generate significant store revenue for Apple?'
If your answer is yes then you should think about developing an app. Otherwise a progressive web app is probably your better choice.
Why Hasn't Spotify Gone to a Progressive Web Application?
If you are wondering, Spotify offers a progressive web application option. Why they don’t use this as there primary path to ‘install’ their experience I don’t know.
Traditionally brands were trained to think consumers want apps over web-based experiences.
That is also a valid download link so I'm not sure why its not working! There are 2 versions of the installer, the one you where pointed to is the lightweight installer which downloads the rest of the program once you run it. The one I gave you a link to is the full download package ? Peter. I had the same problem too, I'm a Spotify premium user- only because I want to listen to music offline. So the way I solved it is that I exited the Spotify app (make sure your wifi/data is off) and then I turn my phone off, once it's off I turn it back on, click on the Spotify app and then it works offline. Spotify offline download not working. To use Offline in Android, just go to playlist you want to download and click green Download button. Also if you need to download via mobile internet (2G/3G), you need to enable option in settings 'Download using mobile internet'. Got to the spotify settings page, scroll down to the bottom and tap 'Delete cache and saved data' Uninstall spotify; Reformat the external SD card using the phone; Go to Play and download spotify music (not spotify) Let me know if it works after doing that please. Make sure Spotify is allowed to use your 3G data, Settings Cellular Scroll down and make sure the Spotify toggle is green. If this doesn't work, it will be the 3.333 limit.
This fails to account for current trends. The web has caught up to native applications in feature parity for just about everything. For a music-based application like Spotify all the pieces are in place to be a web-based experience that matches their current native application.
We also know that consumers are tired of mobile apps. Today no one downloads apps anymore. Sure there are app downloads, but by and large the fad has ended. Most app downloads are to new phones, ‘restoring’ a user’s existing apps.
Outside of frivolous games native apps have simply fallen out of favor by most.
For established brands, like Spotify, have a large base of customers using their existing app. It will be difficult to wean them off the native app to the PWA solution.
Ultimately this means they have to weigh the costs and benefits for maintaining native apps, with the AppStore tax against potential customer churn in changing their interface to the web.
Right now there are many large brands taking that journey. Uber, Lyft, Twitter and others are in the process of moving to a progressive web app solution. Most have PWAs with feature parity to their native apps. They typically have moved to a PWA as the client code base and use a hybrid wrapper like Cordova to put the solution in the store.
This is the problem when you chose to go the way of a closed solution, native apps over an open solution, web. While native apps certainly were popular years ago, that has run its course and now presents an impediment to growing a profitable business.
Why Doesn't Spotify Eliminate AppStore Payments?
I can't speak for Spotify, but I would do exactly what Netflix did.
ApplePay is just one payment provider. The web has been monetized for 25+ years. I have built numerous sites with real-time credit card, ACH, PayPal and other payment providers.
Today the options have increased even more with cryptocurrencies and other more modern methods.
The Payment Request API make this integration and experience even easier. You can even make yourself a payment provider with the new Payment Handler API.
For the record Safari does support the Payment Request API and you can use ApplePay in the other browsers as well as Android Pay and Microsoft Pay.
The ability to receive money online are easier than ever, even on a website. Mobile apps do not have a monopoly on montetization.
And here is the thing, credit card transactions cost less than 3%, even for the more expensive providers. Generally the transaction fee is 1-2.5%.
Spotify For Ipad
This is much, much lower than the 30% Apple takes when someone buys a digital good or service through your app.
This is something I have never understood, why would any business be happy with a third party taking a 30% cut of their pre-tax revenues?
Apple's tax laws are 30% of all sales, except for subscriptions. The first year of a subscription has the 30% penalty, it then drops to 15%. The fee only applies to digital goods purchased through the app, not physical goods.
Mac Spotify Widget Submitted by bsdm on 2014-10-17 07:53 PM. With this new Mac OS update enabling widgets from other apps (besides the system apps) it will be really helpfull to have a widget for Spotify. Many times as I am working and listening to music (coding for example) I find myself searching for the song name on the screen somewhere. Spotify mac os widget. Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs. Spotify is all the music you’ll ever need. Skip to content. Spotify Click the install file to finish up. If your download didn't start, try again. Bring your music to mobile and tablet, too.
Does Apple really offer that much value? Could these businesses succeed through the web?
I say of course they could.
Spotify App Store Download
Paul Thurrott recently made a good point about IAP and Apple's policies after Apple blocked Hey.com's new app.
'This would be acceptable if Apple allowed app makers to use other IAP payment systems, which they do not, or if Apple even allowed app makers to just communicate that they could pay this fee on the Basecamp website. But they don’t even allowthat. And that, of course, is where Hey 1.0.1 ran afoul of Apple’s incredibly tone-deaf policies: Basecamp had the temerity to put a note in its own app explaining that users could go to the web and pay there instead.'
- Paul Thurrott
A Quick Review of AppStore Revenues - Who Actually Makes Money?
Apple and Google makes billions through their mobile app stores. There is no denying the revenue amounts.
Sensor Tower seems to be the consensus reporting service when it comes to app popularity and revenues. So I will use their numbers as examples.
Lets start with the subscription apps like Spotify, which by the way is not in the top 10, so I could not find actual revenue numbers.
I already shared the estimated $850M Netflix made last year. Here is a list of the top 10 subscription based services iOS revenues from 1/2018-11/2018 (so not including December revenues):
- Hulu $132.2M
- QQ $159.7M
- YouKu $192.9M
- Pandora $225.7M
- YouTube $244.2M
- Kwai $264.5M
- Tinder $462.2M
- Tencent $490.0M
- Netflix $790.2M
Notice how half of these apps are Chinese? https://hawaiikeen227.weebly.com/norton-security-2014-key-generator.html.
I should also not that Tinder has released a PWA which is getting great engagement. I expect them to start phasing out their app like other platforms soon.
Tinder is also the only non-media streaming app. If you look at the top dating apps the next 4 account for $235M. https://smallclever953.weebly.com/free-how-to-download-a-youtube-video-on-a-mac.html.
These 10 apps account for about 10% of the overall AppStore revenues, which speaks volumes to me.
Note this list does not include the Major League Baseball package, which I also know drives millions in revenue each season. But the point is streaming subscription services account for a large percentage of Apple's revenue.
Mobile games account for 77% of app store revenues, about $55 billion. That leaves about $16.6 billion for other apps. A large chunk of that is subscription services.
For the record games account for the majority of app downloads too.
So if you are making a game, then mobile apps are probably a reasonable avenue.
A recent stat shared on CNBC says Apple claims to have generated $155 trillion USD in sales since AppStore creation. That is distributed among 23 million developers. This means the average developer has earned around $6700 over the last decade.
That is not much at all. Of course we know the bulk of the revenue was earned by the top 1% or so applications. We know very few apps are downloaded and even fewer used more than once. Hence 1% or fewer actually earn revenue. https://voxyellow.weebly.com/mac-os-high-sierra-download-without-apple-store.html.
Apple's Advantage Against Competition
Another argument Spotify makes against Apple is their distinct advantage over competition like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, etc. These non-Apple services have to pay the Apple tax, and Apple does not. This means Apple is immediately more profitable than the competition can hope to be.
The other advantage is Apple can hold up their application updates, deployments and of course access to undocumented APIs. I can't say if Apple has restricted access to APIs or not, so I wont comment much on that. But I could see them doing this, others have in the past.
I do know Apple does create lots of frustration and friction for deploying apps to the store. This includes new applications and updates.
The 4.2.6 rule gives them free range to almost 'randomly' reject any app anytime they feel like doing so. Personally I think they made the rule intentionally vague so they could create artificial interference with apps they just don't like.
Of course Apple claims they create a safe, trusted environment for their customers, etc. The web is a safe place. One of the reasons web standards take so long to bake and implement is the fight for secure implementations. So I don't see any real 'security' advantage native apps have over the web.
Here's the thing.
Should you outsource the control of your app or your business to a third party like this? It is not always clear, but in most cases no. There is too much to risk.
What if they cut you off, without warning?
You're done.
And Apple does have a history of doing just that.
But they can also make it difficult for you to even deploy updates. I know I have spoken to numerous developers and companies since the AppStore was created lament the fact that even under perfect circumstances it takes 2 weeks to get an update deployed to fix a bug.
Blocking updates is another major aspect of Spotify's complaints. I know they are not alone, I talk to app owners all the time that express frustration with long update cycles and rejections. It is a trail of frustration for many.
On the web, you find a bug, fix it and deploy an update as fast as you can. That could literally be a couple of minutes to just under an hour if you have your ducks in a row, and it is not a major bug of course.
I know some sites update 1500 or more times a day. Try that with your native app.
Apple Responds, but Doesn't Provide a Good Argument
Apple has stepped up its public response to Spotify by posting its own page on the controversy.
In this response Apple claims it owns the store and puts forth the effort to only have high quality apps that are safe and secure.
I have no issue with the notion of safe, secure and protecting privacy. The web has all that as well, so the AppStore has no advantage here.
The real problem lies in their ambiguous App Store Review Guidelines. Of course, in those guidelines they specific an app must be ‘app-like’. This is where they reserve judgement to kick any app they simple do not like.
In their principles and practices response Apple also proudly shares the fact they reject an average of 40,000 app submissions and updates each week. That is 40% of the weekly app submissions.
They also field over 1000 appeals for rejections or removals.
Compare this to the web which allows unlimited deployments a day. Some applications update as many as 1500 times a day.
Deploy a bug, it sucks, but I can quickly fix and redeploy. Sometimes these updates can deploy within minutes.
Good luck doing that with Apple in the way. Developers I speak with tell me they expect 2-4 weeks before bug deployments are actually released in the store.
![Spotify Spotify](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134045313/494026239.jpg)
Not to mention you are subject to the Apple censors to determine if your app is worthy of being presented to consumers. They really do not believe in consumer choice, it is their choice to determine what is best for the consumer.
On top of that they make it difficult to compete with the apps that ship with the iPhone and iPad.
Summing It Up
I get why Spotify has filed a complaint. I don't like they decided to get a government entity involved to fight their battle.
They and other streaming services should be brave enough to follow Netlix's lead and just abandon app store payment as an option.
Spotify should also start an aggressive path toward becoming a progressive web application. I realize there may be a technical hurdle for now preventing a good mobile experience, but that can be overcome with some effort. This is one of the very, very few edge cases where an app is limited to native. 99% aren't.
The video streaming services don't really need native apps. So for now Netflix and other video streaming services have the freedom to migrate from their native apps and the restrictions imposed by the stores.
Audio services are still at a disadvantage until we get a supported API to allow audio to play after the lock screen engages.
This is a great opportunity and incentive for Spotify, Pandora, Audible, Stitcher and other audio services to join the W3C working groups and help define a specification to allow audio to play as a background service in the browser.
Spotify is not profitable at the moment and at a disadvantage on iOS because Apple does not have the 30% tax imposed on themselves.
But that is Apple's prerogative, it is their platform they can do what they want. By supporting a common standard on the web Spotify could move away from Apple's platform and maybe force Apple to add support for a great new capability.
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We believe that technology achieves its true potential when we infuse it with human creativity and ingenuity. From our earliest days, we’ve built our devices, software and services to help artists, musicians, creators and visionaries do what they do best.
Sixteen years ago, we launched the iTunes Store with the idea that there should be a trusted place where users discover and purchase great music and every creator is treated fairly. The result revolutionized the music industry, and our love of music and the people who make it are deeply engrained in Apple.
Eleven years ago, the App Store brought that same passion for creativity to mobile apps. In the decade since, the App Store has helped create many millions of jobs, generated more than $120 billion for developers and created new industries through businesses started and grown entirely in the App Store ecosystem.
At its core, the App Store is a safe, secure platform where users can have faith in the apps they discover and the transactions they make. And developers, from first-time engineers to larger companies, can rest assured that everyone is playing by the same set of rules.
That’s how it should be. We want more app businesses to thrive — including the ones that compete with some aspect of our business, because they drive us to be better.
What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.
Spotify has every right to determine their own business model, but we feel an obligation to respond when Spotify wraps its financial motivations in misleading rhetoric about who we are, what we’ve built and what we do to support independent developers, musicians, songwriters and creators of all stripes.
Spotify claims we’re blocking their access to products and updates to their app.
Let’s clear this one up right away. We’ve approved and distributed nearly 200 app updates on Spotify’s behalf, resulting in over 300 million downloaded copies of the Spotify app. The only time we have requested adjustments is when Spotify has tried to sidestep the same rules that every other app follows.
We’ve worked with Spotify frequently to help them bring their service to more devices and platforms:
- When we reached out to Spotify about Siri and AirPlay 2 support on several occasions, they’ve told us they’re working on it, and we stand ready to help them where we can.
- Spotify is deeply integrated into platforms like CarPlay, and they have access to the same app development tools and resources that any other developer has.
- We found Spotify’s claims about Apple Watch especially surprising. When Spotify submitted their Apple Watch app in September 2018, we reviewed and approved it with the same process and speed with which we would any other app. In fact, the Spotify Watch app is currently the No. 1 app in the Watch Music category.
Spotify is free to build apps for — and compete on — our products and platforms, and we hope they do.
Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.
A full 84 percent of the apps in the App Store pay nothing to Apple when you download or use the app. That’s not discrimination, as Spotify claims; it’s by design:
- Apps that are free to you aren’t charged by Apple.
- Apps that earn revenue exclusively through advertising — like some of your favorite free games — aren’t charged by Apple.
- App business transactions where users sign up or purchase digital goods outside the app aren’t charged by Apple.
- Apps that sell physical goods — including ride-hailing and food delivery services, to name a few — aren’t charged by Apple.
The only contribution that Apple requires is for digital goods and services that are purchased inside the app using our secure in-app purchase system. As Spotify points out, that revenue share is 30 percent for the first year of an annual subscription — but they left out that it drops to 15 percent in the years after.
That’s not the only information Spotify left out about how their business works:
- The majority of customers use their free, ad-supported product, which makes no contribution to the App Store.
- A significant portion of Spotify’s customers come through partnerships with mobile carriers. This generates no App Store contribution, but requires Spotify to pay a similar distribution fee to retailers and carriers.
- Even now, only a tiny fraction of their subscriptions fall under Apple’s revenue-sharing model. Spotify is asking for that number to be zero.
Let’s be clear about what that means. Apple connects Spotify to our users. We provide the platform by which users download and update their app. We share critical software development tools to support Spotify’s app building. And we built a secure payment system — no small undertaking — which allows users to have faith in in-app transactions. Spotify is asking to keep all those benefits while also retaining 100 percent of the revenue.
Spotify wouldn’t be the business they are today without the App Store ecosystem, but now they’re leveraging their scale to avoid contributing to maintaining that ecosystem for the next generation of app entrepreneurs. We think that’s wrong.
What does that have to do with music? A lot.
We share Spotify’s love of music and their vision of sharing it with the world. Where we differ is how you achieve that goal.Underneath the rhetoric, Spotify’s aim is to makemore money off others’ work. And it’s not just the App Store that they’re trying to squeeze — it’s also artists, musicians and songwriters.
Just this week, Spotify sued music creators after a decision by the US Copyright Royalty Board required Spotify to increase its royalty payments. This isn’t just wrong, it represents a real, meaningful and damaging step backwards for the music industry.
Apple’s approach has always been to grow the pie. By creating new marketplaces, we can create more opportunities not just for our business, but for artists, creators, entrepreneurs and every “crazy one” with a big idea. That’s in our DNA, it’s the right model to grow the next big app ideas and, ultimately, it’s better for customers.
We’re proud of the work we’ve done to help Spotify build a successful business reaching hundreds of millions of music lovers, and we wish them continued success — after all, that was the whole point of creating the App Store in the first place.
Press Contacts
Josh Rosenstock
Apple
(408) 862-1142
Spotify Windows Store App
Apple Media Helpline
Spotify App Store
(408) 974-2042