Spotify cutting off remaining App Store billing customers

If you still pay for Spotify through the App Store, you won't be able to for much longer. Spotify is about to cut you off.

There was a window of opportunity for Spotify Premium customers to sign up directly through the App Store, between 2014 and 2016. Back then, the two companies were very vocal about their feelings regarding the digital storefront and its fees, with Spotify constantly declaring along the way that Apple should remove the 30% App Store tax altogether.

Spotify removed the ability for new customers subscribing to the service's Premium tier to do so through the App Store in 2016.

However, as reported by Variety, that option is on the way out, too.

Wednesday's report says Spotify is notifying customers who are still paying for their Premium subscription via Apple's billing that Spotify is no longer accepting that form of payment. Once the customer's most recent billing period ends, if they don't change their method of payment they will automatically switch over to Spotify's free, ad-supported tier.

The email goes on to say if customers want to retain their Premium subscription, they will "need to re-subscribe after your last billing period has ended and your account has been moved on to the Free account." Customers will need to choose one of the payment methods Spotify supports at this point to keep up their subscription.

This "war" between Apple and Spotify has been going on for years now. It has even gone as far as Spotify filing anti-competitive complaints in the European Union in 2019.

Spotify once said Apple One, Apple's bundle of subscriptions that include Apple Music, is a "threat to collective freedom."

The streamer also continues to bang the 30% App Store fee drum, omitting that it is it 15% for subscribers to a service for over a year.

For its part, Apple hasn't minced words, either. The company has said in years past that Spotify is a company that wants "all the benefits of a free app without being free," among other things.

Most recently, Apple says it has already changed its rules within the App Store and for developers enough to satisfy Spotify's complaint against the company in the EU. That includes marking some apps, like Spotify, as "reader" apps, which can link outside of the app for users to manage their account information or set up new accounts.

Interestingly, Spotify continues to argue that Apple is using its dominant position within the market to continue its "anti-competitive" behavior. Apple, of course, often points to the fact that Spotify remains the true dominant music streaming service in the market, with Apple Music sitting in second place.

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16 Comments

mobird 758 comments · 20 Years

About 1 year ago

Who do I whine to for not being able to pay for the Premium Spotify subscription through the  App store? This is monopolistic behavior!!

lam92103 145 comments · 4 Years

Apple should not be able to dictate what over 53% of American consumers can install on their phones. They should not be able to force companies to bend to their rules or just loose 53% of the mobile market

Stabitha_Christie 569 comments · 3 Years

lam92103 said:

Apple should not be able to dictate what over 53% of American consumers can install on their phones. They should not be able to force companies to bend to their rules or just loose 53% of the mobile market

And they don't. Problem solved!

macuserosu 56 comments · 6 Years

lam92103 said:

Apple should not be able to dictate what over 53% of American consumers can install on their phones. They should not be able to force companies to bend to their rules or just loose 53% of the mobile market

Well since In 2012 Apple had it’s walled garden and only 30% market share and the share has grown just over 20% in 10 years seems the customers are voting on how much they appreciate the walled garden approach.

Just because personally you would like to “jailbreak” your phone does not mean I want that for myself of my children’s phones. That’s the joy of a non-monopoly situation, select the company and phone that meets your personal desires.

twolf2919 144 comments · 2 Years

lam92103 said:

Apple should not be able to dictate what over 53% of American consumers can install on their phones. They should not be able to force companies to bend to their rules or just loose 53% of the mobile market

Apple built the phone and made the rules for software to be allowed on the phone before that "53%" even existed. People buying an iPhone agree to this bargain. Apple isn't dictating anything to those 53% or anyone else considering an iPhone - every one of those 53% agreed to follow the rules when they purchased their iPhone. It's called *choice*. They had/have plenty of alternatives.

If Apple made their rules more restrictive *after* a couple billion people bought an iPhone, you might have had a point - but, of course, that's not the case.

Similarly, Apple also didn't force companies to bend to their rules or just lose 53% of the mobile market. Apple came up with a smartphone and platform and let third party developers sell their software on this platform, provided they followed the rules Apple felt would make it successful - i.e. their software needed to go through Apple's review process and only be downloaded via the AppStore (because Apple believed its customers wanted security) and, if those apps sold any digital goods, they had to do so through Apple's payment mechanism and give up 30% of the price of the item (again, because Apple thought it would benefit users to only need to give their payment information to one company - Apple - rather than have it sent to every software maker who might mishandle it).

Spotify, Electronic Arts, and all the other whiners out there agreed to those terms when they first got onto the iPhone - because they knew it was a win-win situation for everybody. But then they got successful and greedy and suddenly they no longer want to pay up. They want to change the rules.

Individuals who want to force Apple to allow downloading of apps from anywhere on the web should simply buy an Android phone instead of destroying the good thing (security wise) that Apple has built.