Apple Vs Spotify, Time to Play Fair

Music Streaming Apps Rule

Nowadays, people around the world use music streaming applications (apps) regularly. Studies have shown that there are currently  more than 1 billion of its users worldwide, and the number is predicted to increase to  1.2 billion by 20231. 

This greatly contributes to its revenue of a staggering US$ 11.1 billion2. There is a multitude of reasons why streaming apps are preferable to the traditional DVDs and CDs; they can provide over 30 million up-to-date songs in just one device, users can listen to songs everywhere since smartphones are mobile, they are easily accessible for musicians who want to publish their songs, and many more3.

Albeit it provides convenience for the users, thanks to advancement of technology, there has been a major controversy that circulates around the music streaming applications market. 

Apple Music versus Spotify, two giants of music streaming apps, are accusing each other for their own reasons. On one hand, Spotify accused Apple for not levelling the playing field. 

On the other hand, Apple fired back by saying that without App Store, Apple's digital distribution platform that allows Apple devices' users to buy apps, Spotify would not have become the world's most popular music streaming app. How did the conflict between the two happen? What action did Apple do that angered Spotify?

Goliath vs Goliath

The altercation started in 2010, two years after Spotify became available on App Store4. According to Spotify, Apple started to change App Store's terms and regulations and interpreted it in such a way that it would disadvantage rival apps, such as not allowing the apps to include a "buy" button that redirects away from App Store. Apple had and still has the authority to do so as the iOS platform, Apple's software which includes App Store, is owned by Apple5.

From then on, Apple started complicating Spotify in doing their business. The most infamous incident would be the Apple tax, 30% tax which was imposed to developers using App Store to market their product, including Spotify. 

This forced Spotify to inflate its price by 30% from $10 to $13 which drove down the demand for Spotify in the App Store. Furthermore, in 2015, Apple denied Spotify's proposal to include Spotify on Apple Watch, which they had finally done so 3 years later.

In 2017, Spotify got rejected by Apple for promoting "get 3 months now for 0.99", despite only directing users to a landing page without information on where or how to purchase Premium feature (which Apple had allowed only a few months prior) yet Apple allowed Apple Music (opened on June 30, 2015) to do the exact same promotion. The last straw was when Spotify got blocked again, this time for enabling podcast recommendations.