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Spotify finds itself in the middle of a battle with Apple over its new audiobook feature — specifically, whether it can give people links to buy them. Apple says it can’t, a move that’s seen Spotify label the company as anti-competitive.
This latest war of words comes after Apple reportedly rejected Spotify’s app update that adds support for audiobooks three times, all because it included a button that allowed people to essentially email themselves a link to buy an audiobook from the service.
War of words
Apple, as everyone knows at this point, requires 30% of any purchases of digital items made by apps downloaded from the App Store. That includes Kindle books, which is why you can’t buy one from the Kindle or Amazon apps. As Spotify is finding out, it also includes audiobooks, too — no matter whether it’s via a direct link or a button that emails it to customers.
Now Spotify is taking the gloves off with a press release that dives at the heart straight of the matter. “Bottom line, we’re forced to make users work even harder to listen to an audiobook,” it says, as a result of Apple’s rules. The press release adds that the purchase flow Apple requires is “far too complicated and confusing,” noting that even its own rules can change “arbitrarily.” That’s an accusation Apple has faced many times before, specifically in relation to companies and developers trying to abide by constantly-shifting App Store rules.
Spotify is already four years into a complaint with the European Commission (EU) as Spotify CEO Daniel Ek points out, with no decision having been made. “And while we wait, Apple continues to dictate what online innovation looks like, doing serious harm to the internet economy, choking competition and the imagination of app developers,” Ek says before calling on government intervention. Ek believes that Apple “will not self-regulate and has no real incentive to change.”
There’s little doubt that the best iPhone audiobook-listening experience would allow customers to just buy them via the Spotify app, but that would require the streamer handing 30% of sales over to Apple. That clearly isn’t going to happen, so customers look set to lose out as a result.
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