Hacker News Reader

Comment by Gravityloss | Hacker News Reader

Interesting claim:

> Today, Spotify has a 56 percent share of Europe’s music streaming market — more than double their closest competitor’s — and pays Apple nothing for the services that have helped make them one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Don't they have to pay the provision of the subscription like other apps?

EDIT: actually read the letter and they indeed don't (thanks for the responses too)

View on HN

And they shouldn't have to, users should be able to install whatever software they want on their devices without paying a gatekeeper for it. Spotify exists on the web as well, they don't have to pay Google or Mozilla for delivering the service to their users. They don't have to pay Microsoft when users downloads and installs desktop software for windows. So why should Apple get any money because users install Spotify on their iphones? I'm sure Spotify pays Google for their cloud services that actually helps make them successful.

> they don't have to pay Google or Mozilla for delivering the service to their users.

Spotify has a secret deal with Google:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/20/23969690/google-spotify-...

It explains it later that spotify does not allow for subscription via App store. so, all they pay is $100 per year as a dev fee which is basically nothing. Apple also claims that they flew an engineer to Sweden to help out Spotify.

Spotify does not allow you to subscribe in their iOS app. You have to do that in a browser and then log in. That way Apple does not get a cut.

It’s telling that Apple would rather get 30% of 0 than lower their fees to the point where it’s mutually beneficial for Spotify and other large apps to offer in-app subscriptions.

If an app is charging users $1000 a month, what entitles Apple to $300 of that versus the $3 of a $10 subscription? It seems like more of a tax than a fee that allows Apple to profitably operate the store and infrastructure.

$100/year dev license. Not bad for 119 billion downloads!

If Apple want to charge more for X-code and it's not mandatory to use it to sign the keys they should.

I think everyone knows how that would go for them in a competitive market.

So much arrogance from them recently. The biggest threat to Apple right now are themselves.

> for the services that have helped make them one of the most recognizable brands in the world

I'm pretty sure Apple did nothing for that, Spotify's own marketing did. It's not like people discover that Spotify is a thing thanks to the app store.

Apparently not. Spotify sells their subscriptions on their website.

> pays Apple nothing

Nothing? Not even the developers fees?

C'mon Apple

Reply on news.ycombinator.com