Apple: Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free

“Apple Inc on Thursday responded to Spotify Technology SA’s complaint with EU antitrust regulators, saying the audio streaming service ‘wants all the benefits of a free app without being free,'” Reuters reports.
“Spotify, launched a year after Apple unveiled its first iPhone in 2007, said on Wednesday the company unfairly limits rivals to its own music streaming service,” Reuters reports. “In response, Apple said it had approved and distributed nearly 200 app updates on Spotify’s behalf, resulting in over 300 million downloaded copies of the Spotify app. ‘The only time we have requested adjustments is when Spotify has tried to sidestep the same rules that every other app follows,’ Apple said in a statement. ‘Spotify is free to build apps for – and compete on – our products and platforms, and we hope they do.'”
“The Swedish company has launched a website, outlining different ways in which Apple uses its power to make its platform an ‘uneven playing field,'” Reuters reports. “In its reply, Apple has rebutted most of the points made by Spotify on the website, ‘Time to Play Fair.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whomever advised, if anyone indeed did, Daniel Ek to be a whiny little bitch and run off to the the most-likely-to-arrive-at-the-wrong-conclusion European Commission instead of competing fair and square against Apple Music is a fool. Or perhaps Ek just finally figured out the exceedingly clear writing on the wall and realized that he has nothing to lose precisely because he knows he cannot compete with Apple Music and it’s only going to be downhill for Spotify from here on out. Regardless, Ek & Co. just hastened their own descent into also-ran status with their little hissy fit stunt.
Grind them into a fine paste, Apple!
Spotify is a money-losing enterprise that cannot compete and has already been eclipsed by Apple Music in the world’s No.1 market for recorded music, the United States of America. Seeing the writing on the wall, Spotify runs whining to the EU like little babies crying for mommy; not a shred of dignity left. Beleaguered Spotify predicts an operating loss of up to $406.77 million for 2019.
This boils down to the fact that Spotify wants to use the platform that Apple built and maintains at great expense for free.” – MacDailyNews, March 13, 2019
BTW: You’d have to be stupid to subscribe to Spotify when it has 40% fewer tracks than Apple Music for the same price. Apple Music boasts a catalog of 50 million songs; Spotify has just 30 million. Don’t be stupid. If you’re still subscribing to Spotify, it’s past time for you to cancel it and upgrade to Apple Music. (See also: How to move your Spotify playlists to Apple Music.)
SEE ALSO:
Apple publicly addresses Spotify’s claims – March 15, 2019
Increasingly desperate Spotify demands a free ride from Apple’s App Store – March 14, 2019
Spotify’s Apple Music complaint was a near decade in the making – March 13, 2019
Spotify files EU antitrust complaint against Apple – March 13, 2019
Samsung to preinstall Spotify on phones – March 8, 2019
Streaming services led by Apple Music account for 75 percent of the U.S. recording industry’s revenue – March 1, 2019
Apple Music now leads Spotify in the U.S., the No. 1 recorded music market – December 31, 2018