
Spotify can’t afford the 30% “Apple Tax”, and and Apple knows that - s3an
https://youtu.be/l8SShgWqJvg
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bronzeage
Apple / google tax on apps screams for regulation. Taking a percentage cut
from something while the internal cost for them remains constant, is monopoly
at its best.

Minewhile while we're asleep Microsoft is doing their best to promote their
own kind of monopoly. Under the guise of security features they are promoting
mandatory signing, while what they are really pushing for is to slowly turn
the PC into yet another closed economy.

If we will slowly allow Microsoft their way of enforcing mandatory signing by
default, PC will be heading in the very same direction. We need to stop this
now!

~~~
jazoom
For your second paragraph all I could think about was how now is the time for
Linux desktop. Then I realised that non-Android Linux could be good on phones
too (for the problems in your first paragraph), but for some reason it didn't
seem to catch on.

I say this not as a hardcore Linux fan, but as a Windows user of nearly 30
years.

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pedro_hab
Apple is claiming is not 30% but rather 15% after the first year.

I think Apple may be right in this one, but with their track record so far is
hard to give them a benefit of the doubt.

[https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/addressing-
spotifys-c...](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/addressing-spotifys-
claims/)

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Spivak
Can I get an MBA here to explain why this is a big deal? If Spotify can't make
money on the Apple store why not just charge whatever they need to, pretend it
doesn't exist, and go for customers through different channels?

Like does Spotify really need their iOS app to be an advertising channel for
them? Is being able to sell premium on Apple devices really so valuable?

~~~
ckocagil
>If Spotify can't make money on the Apple store why not just charge whatever
they need to, pretend it doesn't exist, and go for customers through different
channels?

Because Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store are where everyone is.

~~~
Spivak
I mean it's where users download apps but it's not the only place people sign
up for subscriptions.

If customer acquisition is so expensive outside of the App Store then that's
an argument that Apple's "we get 30% of all revenue made through us when you
use our platform as a funnel" might actually be too low.

~~~
ineedasername
Except apple then released their own competing service that doesn't have to
play by the same rules. In effect this raises the cost of customer acquisition
both within and outside of the app store. Spotify's take on things basically
says as much. They were willing to work in the app store and pass the apple
tax on to consumers until apple created their offering and made that too
untenable.

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zxcb1
How about they both pay taxes?

