Spotify is at its wit’s end dealing with Apple and shifting IAP policies
Spotify is one ofthe best streaming appsfor music available on mobile today. The service already offers podcasts, but you can now also buy and listen to audiobooks on it.Audiobooks became a part of the appin late September, though Spotify isn’t happy with the user experience of purchasing this content when it comes to convenience and user-friendliness. The company pins the blame on all the hoop-jumping required to meet Apple’s ever-changing in-app purchase (IAP) policies. Matters aren’t much better on Android, either.
Spotify saysApple’s policy isn’t just affecting the streaming service itself and its users, as authors and publishers are also “under Apple’s thumb.” The company claims it was forced to create a complex purchase flow for audiobooks in the Spotify app that’s confusing and forcefully implemented to limit the growth of its audiobook business, all while giving Apple an unfair advantage.
At one point, Spotify conceptualized a tiresome nine-step process to purchase audiobooks, saying it complied with Apple’s rules. Apple lets developers sell digital goods from within their apps, as long as developers use Apple’s IAP systems and give the company an up to 30 percent cut from the earnings. Spotify didn’t seem too eager to cough up the commission, and wanted to send customers emails with a purchase link for the audiobook they wanted to get from the app. After initially greenlighting this approach, Apple then decided not to allow this, because communication must not contain a direct purchase link or redirect readers to Spotify’s website. The app can only tell readers to visit the Spotify website, without linking to it directly, whether in app or in an email. To pile on the agony, Spotify claims Apple unilaterally changes IAP rules all the time, rendering them nigh impossible to interpret correctly.
A recentNew York Times articleon the matter adds that Apple refused to update Spotify’s App Store listing thrice after accepting the initial submission, even though Spotify involved lawyers in the development process to err on the side of caution. Ultimately, Spotify was forced to remove all calls to action, audiobook purchase links, and redirects to its web store from the emails sent to customers, just to get the App Store update approved. Customers can still buy audiobooks on the Spotify website, but like we mentioned, they are expected to navigate to the Spotify web store themselves. Apple doesn’t seem to have changed any rules or gone out of its way to harm Spotify, but the existing framework convolutes the process without good reason.
To recall, this is not the first time Spotify has pointed a finger at Apple, blaming it for making business difficult to conduct. It certainly isn’t the first time amajor business has called Apple outfor difficulty doing business with it. Spotify highlighting the challenges running its new audiobooks section on the App Store could backfire and lead to lesser user engagement for the streamer, actually hurting Apple in the process because it takes a cut off every IAP. Spotify has a dedicated blog titledTime to Play Fairexplaining its take on the matter.
That said, IAPs are a proverbialminefield to navigate on Androidtoo. Similar restrictions prevent app developers from selling directly to customers through third-party gateways. For instance, you can’t buyKindle e-bookson the Kindle Android app directly, either. The issues Spotify has with Apple also apply to Android to a great extent, but Google mercifully allows Spotify users to click a button and receive an email with details on how to purchase an audiobook. This results in a relatively pleasant and straightforward purchase experience on Android, which Spotify cannot replicate in Apple’s ecosystem.
It’s still clear that the process is far from user friendly on either platform, with Apple making matters even more complicated than on Android. Google and Apple both have a lot of control over how other parties can sell their goods on the platform. With regulatory scrutiny increasing, it’s clear that these things might soon change and make life easier for everyone, both third-party developers not ready to give up such a significant portion of revenue and consumers who just want an easy way to obtain their content.
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