
Spotify says Apple won’t approve a new version of its app - djug
http://www.recode.net/2016/6/30/12067578/spotify-apple-app-store-rejection?utm_campaign=www.recode.net&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
======
Dotnaught
Apple's App Store Review Guidelines used to warn against taking complaints to
the press:

"If your App is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If
you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."

[https://developer.apple.com/app-
store/review/guidelines/2016...](https://developer.apple.com/app-
store/review/guidelines/2016-06-13/)

The current version, published on June 13, 2016, omits that statement:

[https://developer.apple.com/app-
store/review/guidelines/](https://developer.apple.com/app-
store/review/guidelines/)

~~~
rck404
For all the openness Apple claims, developers and companies should be able to
talk to press or write blogs about what they want. Apple is benefiting from
these apps and tries to silence the voices of arguments. This is pure North
Korean kind of rule that only Apple and Kim Jong would approve of.

~~~
eric_h
Openness from for profit companies is a rare beast, and only recently are
companies actually starting to approve of openness as they realize its
benefits. Putting Apple and North Korea as the only entities that disapprove
of running to the press is disingenuous at best.

------
IBM
This is a game being played out in public. It wasn't a coincidence that
Elizabeth Warren mentioned Apple Music yesterday in a speech (among other tech
companies).

[http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/spotify-makes-case-
aga...](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/spotify-makes-case-against-
apple-in-congress-119976)

[http://www.recode.net/2016/6/29/12060804/elizabeth-warren-
ap...](http://www.recode.net/2016/6/29/12060804/elizabeth-warren-apple-google-
amazon-competition)

------
RKearney
The app is rejected because Spotify tried to bypass the In-App Purchases
system to obtain payment information form subscribers, thus bypassing the 30%
cut Apple takes.

This isn't a new requirement at all. Spotify is free to remove signups all
together from their App, requiring users already have signed up for an account
on their website. This has always been an option.

~~~
pbarnes_1
That's not how the rule works.

You can sign people up. They can upgrade on your own site. As long as you
don't tell them they can do that in the app.

Spotify don't. They were communicating the promotion via email, outside the
app, where Apple has no jurisdiction.

A tonne of companies aren't paying Apple 30%. It's basically on a case by case
basis -- if Apple likes you or not. They don't like Spotify.

~~~
developer2
The rule and the fee are complete bullshit. 30% isn't even remotely viable.
They should be charging equivalent to transaction fees, which would tally
below 5%. Hopefully one day someone will find a law with which they can
challenge the fee's insanity in court. Anti-competitiveness seems like the
appropriate avenue; we just have to wait for a company to try their hand at
it.

At a _bare minimum_ , apps must be allowed to explain to users in-app that
they can reduce their payments by paying outside the app.

~~~
rycfan
Why would they charge the equivalent of transaction fees when they (Apple)
pays those fees? How would they make any money if they only charged
transaction fees?

I've run the numbers on products like this before. In order to absorb
transaction fees, build your own product, and support it, fees need to be in
the 10-15% range.

Also, note that almost no companies charge _less_ if you pay out of app -- the
company just keeps more for themselves.

~~~
denzil_correa
> I've run the numbers on products like this before. In order to absorb
> transaction fees, build your own product, and support it, fees need to be in
> the 10-15% range.

Apple does charge 10-15% for Spotify like apps viz. apps that sell
subscriptions for more than 1 year.

[https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/whats-
ne...](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/whats-new/)

    
    
       After a subscriber accumulates one year of paid service,    
       your revenue increases to 85% of the subscription price, 
       minus applicable taxes. All current subscriptions are 
       eligible.

~~~
mcphage
That's a brand new rule, just going into effect.

~~~
denzil_correa
So is Spotify's letter.

------
skynetv2
How Apple is not hit by anti-trust cases across the world on a range of topics
is baffling!

~~~
kartD
Because they aren't a monopoly, they have like 15-20% of the smartphone
market. Only Google would have to worry about anti-trust cases

~~~
digi_owl
To hell with this "monopoly" crap. The term do not apply to the topic at all,
and never has.

All it matters is that a company, or groups of companies, are big enough to
distort customer choice to their benefit. This either directly in said market,
or by being large in a related market that they can use as leverage.

~~~
wvenable
Don't all businesses do that? Walmart? Costco? Verizon? AT&T? Bestbuy?

The consequence here is that you are saying a company should not be able to
control what they sell in their own stores. That seems pretty extreme.

~~~
digi_owl
The tricky bit there is that apple both sell their own products and services
alongside being a retailer for third party products and services.

In the end though, someone has to file a complaint with a relevant regulator
for anything to happen. And i suspect few wants to go through the years of
court rigamarole opposite Apple's legal team.

~~~
snowwrestler
This is true of any large grocery or drug store chain, at least in the U.S. I
can go into CVS and buy Allegra allergy medicine, or--sitting right next to it
on the shelf, also in a purple box--the CVS generic brand with the same amount
of the same active ingredient, for less.

Allegra could pull their product from CVS shelves if they wanted to. But it
seems that having access to CVS customers is worth more to them than the sales
they lose to CVS generics.

------
djrogers
Interesting that Spotify would start pushing this issue so hard following
immediately on the heels of Apple reducing their cut to 15% for subscriptions
after the first year [1].

There had been rumors of Apple extending this reduction to some companies for
a while now, wonder if Spotify had been left out of that?

[1] [https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/whats-
ne...](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/whats-new/)

------
praveenweb
I think sometime last year, Amazon removed the sales of Apple TV and Chrome
cast from their platform. The platform decides what is profitable for them.
After all the consumers and the businesses have their choices open on what to
use. But i seriously want Apple to be diplomatic in this issue and allow
whatever is best for everyone.

------
endlessvoid94
This is a PR stunt.

