Spotify CEO Says Apple’s App Retailer Adjustments Are a ‘New Low’
- Spotify chief govt Daniel Ek is sad about Apple’s proposed App Store changes.
- He stated Apple intends to introduce new charges, making it tougher for Spotify to amass prospects.
- Ek has been a vocal critic of Apple’s tight maintain on the iOS ecosystem.
The record of executives who aren’t thrilled with Apple’s new app distribution policies simply retains rising.
Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek stated in an X put up on Friday that Apple’s adjustments signify a “new low, even for them.” This got here after Spotify launched a statement calling out the iPhone maker for appearing like “they do not assume the foundations apply to them.”
Apple introduced it should for the primary time permit builders to create and distribute apps on third-party marketplaces as soon as it releases iOS 17.4. The adjustments will solely take impact within the EU, which has compelled Apple to adjust to the Digital Markets Act — a European regulation geared toward curbing tech giants’ maintain over the digital financial system.
Whereas this will sound like a victory for app builders since it should open up extra channels for distribution, many are complaining that Apple is not going to solely retain management over which third-party marketplaces find yourself on its system however can even cost charges for downloads on these different marketplaces.
“A masterclass in distortion”
Ek stated Apple’s response to the Digital Markets Act is “a masterclass in distortion.”
Underneath Apple’s new changes, apps with over a million downloads might want to pay a “core know-how payment” for “every first annual set up per yr.” That places an app like Spotify — which Ek stated has greater than 100 million downloads within the EU — in an “untenable state of affairs” as a result of it drastically will increase the price of buying new prospects.
In a press release, Spotify described the payment as “extortion, plain and easy.” The corporate says the payment will probably harm builders, potential start-ups, and people providing free apps who won’t have the funds to pay Apple — particularly if their app immediately goes viral.
That signifies that even a multibillion-dollar firm like Spotify might want to “stick to the established order” to stay worthwhile, Ek stated.
For its half, Apple stated in a press release that it seeks to assist builders, together with Spotify, which it acknowledged because the world’s “most profitable” music streaming app.
“The adjustments we’re sharing for apps within the European Union give builders alternative — with new choices to distribute iOS apps and course of funds,” a spokesperson for Apple advised Enterprise Insider by e-mail. “Each developer can select to remain on the identical phrases in place in the present day. And below the brand new phrases, greater than 99% of builders would pay the identical or much less to Apple.”
Whereas Apple’s tight maintain over the iOS ecosystem has helped it reap billions in income, it has additionally triggered it to run afoul of regulators who imagine its techniques stifle innovation and suppress new entrants. Ek, too, is a longtime critic of Apple’s tactics and has beforehand stated the corporate has a methods to go earlier than it turns into an “open and honest platform.”
Apple’s App Retailer change not solely falls wanting that preferrred, however “mocks the spirit of the regulation and the lawmakers who wrote it,” Ek stated.
The excellent news for him is that Apple’s new adjustments aren’t set in stone till they cross muster with the EU. And Ek stated he is hoping the EU “acknowledges this for precisely what it’s and stands agency and would not let their work through the years all be for nothing.”