Spotify chief government Daniel Ek stated in an X submit on Friday that Apple’s modifications characterize a “new low, even for them.” This cam after Spotify launched an announcement calling out the iPhone maker for appearing like “they don’t think the rules apply to them.”
Apple introduced it’ll for the primary time permit builders to create and distribute apps on third-party marketplaces as soon as it releases iOS 17.4. The modifications will solely take impact within the EU, which has pressured Apple to adjust to the Digital Markets Act — a European regulation geared toward curbing tech giants’ maintain over the digital financial system.
While this will sound like a victory for app builders since it’ll open up extra channels for distribution, many are complaining that Apple won’t 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.”
Under Apple’s new modifications, apps with over a million downloads might want to pay a “core technology fee” for “each first annual install per year.” That places an app like Spotify — which Ek stated has greater than 100 million downloads within the EU — in an “untenable situation” as a result of it drastically will increase the price of buying new prospects.
In an announcement, Spotify described the payment as “extortion, plain and simple.” The firm says the payment will seemingly harm builders, potential start-ups, and people providing free apps who won’t have the funds to pay Apple — particularly if their app all of the sudden goes viral.
That implies that even a multibillion-dollar firm like Spotify might want to “stick with the status quo” to stay worthwhile, Ek stated.
For its half, Apple stated in an announcement that it seeks to help builders, together with Spotify, which it acknowledged because the world’s “most successful” music streaming app.
“The changes we’re sharing for apps in the European Union give developers choice — with new options to distribute iOS apps and process payments,” a spokesperson for Apple advised Business Insider by e-mail. “Every developer can choose to stay on the same terms in place today. And under the new terms, more than 99% of developers would pay the same or less to Apple.”
While Apple’s tight maintain over the iOS ecosystem has helped it reap billions in income, it has additionally prompted it to run afoul of regulators who consider its ways stifle innovation and suppress new entrants. Ek, too, is a longtime critic of Apple’s ways and has beforehand stated the corporate has a methods to go earlier than it turns into an “open and fair platform.”
Apple’s App Store change not solely falls wanting that very best, however “mocks the spirit of the law and the lawmakers who wrote it,” Ek stated.
The excellent news for him is that Apple’s new modifications aren’t set in stone till they cross muster with the EU. And Ek stated he is hoping the EU “recognizes this for exactly what it is and stands firm and doesn’t let their work over the years all be for nothing.”