Spotify vs. Apple: the latest updates

A Sunday morning report from the Financial Times says the €500 million (about $539 million USD) fine comes after regulators investigated a Spotify complaint that Apple policies prevent iPhone apps from telling users about cheaper alternatives to Apple’s music service.

The issue comes down to Apple’s efforts to keep apps and users corraled inside its App Store payments system. Spotify complained in 2019 that Apple’s policies muted competition against Apple Music, kicking off an EU investigation the next year. The EU whittled its objections down to oppose Apple’s refusal to let developers even link out to their own subscription sign-ups within their apps — a policy that Apple changed in 2022 following regulatory pressure in Japan.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is currently under assault by Fortnite developer Epic Games in an incredible legal and cultural fight, but Epic was hardly the first to accuse Apple of abusing monopolistic power.

Today, Spotify — the music service whose complaints helped launch two official EU antitrust investigations into Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay practices — has taken offense at Apple’s announcement of an all-in-one subscription bundle that includes its rival Apple Music.

The European Commission is opening two antitrust investigations into Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay practices today.

The first investigation will probe whether Apple has broken EU competition rules with its App Store policies, following complaints by Spotify and Rakuten over Apple’s 30 percent cut on subscriptions and sales of ebooks through its App Store.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said he expects longtime rival Apple will “open up” iOS and its platforms more in the future as a result of contention with developers and growing antitrust concern from regulators, according to an interview with Ek published on Tuesday by Bloomberg.

Spotify filed a regulatory complaint with the European Union last year, calling Apple’s mandatory 30 percent App Store cut a “tax” that stifles innovation and unfairly benefits Apple against its competitors. Spotify also cited Apple’s control over system-level features like its Siri voice assistant, which at the time did not work with Spotify but naturally did integrate with Apple Music. The complaint resulted in an ongoing EU antitrust investigation.

Apple Watch users can now ask Siri to play music through Spotify. With an update to Spotify’s app today, spotted by 9to5Mac, you can now ask Siri to play music through Spotify by ending a music request with “on Spotify.” The example Spotify gives is something as simple as “Hey Siri, play music on Spotify.”

It’s a small update, but it’s an overdue one for the Apple Watch. Apple only started allowing third-party music apps to integrate with Siri last year with the launch of iOS 13 and watchOS 6. Spotify immediately began supporting the feature on iPhones, but it’s taken until now to expand to the Apple Watch.

Spotify has launched the ability to play music with Apple’s Siri voice assistant on the iPhone and iPad. The new feature, only recently made possible in iOS 13, puts Spotify on more equal footing with Apple Music. It showed up in the company’s beta app in late September, but it has now rolled out to all users. Another new addition will automatically put Spotify into Data Saver mode when you activate Low Data Mode on your device.

You can ask Siri to play music through Spotify on iOS and iPadOS. According to Spotify, Siri can also control the app in CarPlay, and you can use AirPlay to play music on your HomePod with voice commands as well.

Apple and Spotify are in talks about potentially enabling Siri to play songs, albums, and playlists from the leading subscription music service. A new report from The Information confirms that Spotify would be taking advantage of new capabilities that Apple is introducing in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, which allow other apps to be on equal footing with Apple Music when making music requests through the company’s Siri voice assistant. If Spotify takes advantage of the new tools, you’ll be able to play music without having to open the app on your iPhone or iPad.

The integration could be a sign of progress between two companies that have butted heads to a more heated degree than ever before over the last year. In March, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the EU that accused Apple of disadvantaging third-party services that compete with its own apps. Among other gripes (such as Apple’s subscription tax), Spotify pointed to hands-free Siri compatibility as one convenient feature that Apple was reserving for its own Apple Music service.

Apple has filed its response to Spotify’s antitrust complaint in Europe, and its answer is essentially that Spotify has greatly exaggerated how much money is being taken by the App Store. Apple says that it’s currently taking a 15 percent cut of subscription fees for around 680,000 Spotify subscribers, representing 0.5 percent of Spotify’s total subscribers, and that Spotify is not paying a 30 percent cut on anything. The details were first reported by Der Spiegel.

The takeaway message is supposed to be that Spotify is blowing its complaint way out of proportion, but those small numbers don’t tell the full story — they basically don’t matter, because Spotify gave up on App Store subscriptions years ago.

As it faces both an antitrust lawsuit with huge implications and a formal EU investigation over its App Store tactics, Apple is today publicly defending itself against Spotify and other critics of the company’s massively successful software storefront.

“Today, the App Store is more vibrant and innovative than ever, offering equal opportunities to developers to deliver their apps and services across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch,” reads a new page at Apple’s website titled “App Store — Principles and Practices.” “We’re proud of the store we’ve built and the way we’ve built it.”

The EU is preparing to launch a formal antitrust investigation against Apple following Spotify’s official complaint, reports the Financial Times. Spotify claims that Apple uses its App Store to stifle innovation and limit consumer choice in favor of its own Apple Music service.

Following Spotify’s complaint in March, the EU surveyed customers, rivals, and others before deciding to launch a formal investigation “in the next few weeks,” reports the FT.

The tit-for-tat war of words between Spotify and Apple continued today, with the former calling the latter a “monopolist,” and that its response to the lawsuit was “entirely in line with our expectations,” according to Variety.

The statement is the latest in a highly public spat between the two companies. On Wednesday, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Union, alleging that Apple uses unfair practices in the App Store. Specifically, Spotify is upset at the 30 percent that Apple charges developers for subscriptions, and it says that it’s designed to give Apple Music an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Essentially, to match Apple’s price with its 30 percent cut, it can’t match the price of Apple Music, and it’s at the mercy of Apple’s technical restrictions. It also launched a website called Time to Play Fair, where it outlined its complaints against Apple.

Earlier today, Apple hit back against Spotify’s EU antitrust complaint in a press release, saying Spotify “wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.” The statement features the expected rebuttals to Spotify’s claims about how Apple uses the App Store to boost Apple Music, but there’s something interesting at the bottom: a jab against Spotify that is completely unrelated to the EU fight.

“Just this week,” the Apple release reads, “Spotify sued music creators after a decision by the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) required Spotify to increase its royalty payments.” This line is obviously intended to cast Spotify as a bad overall actor, and Apple as a friend of artists that should be defended. It’s not a bad tactic, since artists and Spotify have long had a testy relationship. But the truth is, of course, a little more complicated than that.

Apple has fired back against Spotify in an unusual press release that argues the music streaming service “wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.” Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in Europe earlier this week, with CEO Daniel Ek arguing that App Store policies give Apple an “unfair advantage at every turn.” But Apple’s statement makes the case that Spotify’s claims are misleading.

“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,” Apple’s statement says in retort. “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.” Ek had complained about the 30 percent “tax” that Apple levies on subscriptions made from within the app.

Spotify announced this morning that it’s filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Union, alleging that the iPhone maker is harming consumer choice and stifling innovation via the rules it enforces on the App Store.

As Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek outlined in a blog post, the company is particularly annoyed about the 30 percent cut Apple takes from subscriptions made via the App Store. This “tax,” suggests Ek, seems designed to harm streaming services that compete with Apple’s own.

Spotify is not impressed.

Yesterday’s news that Apple would be giving a bigger revenue share to app developers if they rope people into long-term subscriptions shook up the software world. But Spotify, which has been vocal in the past about what it calls the “Apple tax,” says the changes don’t get to the “core of the problem.”

Spotify is trying to raise awareness around the fact that it’s cheaper to subscribe on the web instead of through Apple’s App Store. The leading subscription music service plans to email iPhone customers the below note encouraging them, if they haven’t already, to start paying at Spotify.com and save a few dollars. “In case you didn’t know, the normal Premium price is only $9.99, but Apple charges 30 percent on all payments made through iTunes,” the email blast reads. “You can get the exact same Spotify for only $9.99/month, and it’s super simple.”

The message is followed with a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to shut off auto-renew through iTunes (so Apple won’t keep charging you the higher $12.99-per-month rate) and transfer your account to the web — something that can only be done once your current subscription lapses. “Pardon us if you can’t do this immediately. Your current plan needs to end first,” Spotify says.