The music streaming service has published a blog post to target Apple and its business practices directly. Spotify believes Apple is actually “choking competition” and making the process of buying audiobooks “far too complicated and confusing.” Spotify launched its audiobook service last month. The streaming app claims Apple changes the rules arbitrarily and makes it impossible to interpret them. Ultimately, consumers will find it harder to listen to an audiobook, which Spotify believes hurts the listeners, publishers, and authors. “Apple continues to dictate what online innovation looks like, doing serious harm to the internet economy, choking competition and the imagination of app developers.” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says. Ek added that Apple is unwilling to self-regulate and has no real incentive to change.
Spotify claims Apple is disrupting the competition
App Store commission has always been controversial for Apple, and many companies have accused the iPhone makers of establishing a monopoly. Apple already required developers to use the App Store payment system, and any app that wanted to bypass this system would be kicked out of the store. However, the company abandoned this policy due to developers’ protests and a court ruling. Spotify’s main point is that Apple is making it harder for users to pay and listen to their favorite audiobooks. The streaming service even launched a webpage to show how it wanted to deliver an audiobook experience on iOS. However, their proposed process was rejected by Apple because it was against App Store’s policies. Apple spokesperson Adam Dema told The Verge that the app was “rejected for not following the guidelines regarding including explicit in-app communications to direct users outside the app to make digital purchases.” But he also said that Apple has “no issue with reader apps adding audiobook content to their apps, linking users out to websites to sign up for services, or communicating with customers externally about alternative purchase options.” Spotify now hides the audiobook prices and prevents users from buying content within the app. Users can select their favorite audiobook in the app, and Spotify emails a link to them to check it on the web. This is a tedious process, and users can’t also compare prices for a fair purchase. Additionally, using App Store in-app payment system for buying audiobooks will force users to pay up to 30 percent commission.
