Spotify and Apple Music are in a serious battle for music streaming supremacy. Recently, Spotify added new privileges specifically for Samsung users, in an attempt to come out ahead. But they still lag behind in the iPhone market. One reason for that is due to the Apple App store.
According to Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, the Apple App Store requires Spotify and other digital services to pay 30 percent tax on items that are purchased through Apple’s payment system. This includes upgrading to Spotify Premium. “If we pay this tax,” Ek said, “it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.”
There also seems to be a bit of a double standard. Apps such as Uber are not affected by this tax. This makes it seem like Apple is picking and choosing who they want to charge. Spotify has filed an official claim with the European Commission to fight this tax.
Ek did stress that this isn’t a “Spotify-versus-Apple issue” but rather a “Competition on the merits” but…let’s be honest here, it also is very much a Spotify-versus-Apple issue.
