Spotify asks Apple to play nice, tiff between tech giants gets heated
A podcast featuring Spotify’s CEO called Apple out for making the tech market unfair.
Spotify has been campaigning for years to have free and fair market competition in the tech sector and have levelled accusations that Apple is harming developers and other streaming services.
Over the years Apple has refused to allow competing app stores on its devices, such as IPhones and IPads. Spotify has claimed that this is against free market principles and means that consumers are not given choices. They claim that this skewers the market against innovators and smaller companies.
As of August 2022, the market share of IOS, Apple’s operating system in the UK was 48.83 per cent.
Apple’s current policy means that third parties are forced to go through Apple’s own app store to market their products. Apple takes up to 30% in commission for payments to these apps. Starting 2024, this is set to be regulated by the EU’s Digital Markets Act which restricts such monopolising behaviour.
Commenting on Apple’s market practices, Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify said “We think it is one where it has to make it clear that you as a developer or a company should be able to interact with your consumers… there should be a choice for how these consumers should be able to pay for goods and services on these platforms. And that can’t be dictated by Apple.”