Spotify Can Now Show You More Payment Options in the IPhone App
You probably know that you don’t have to pay to use Spotify if you’re good at advertising. Of course, to enjoy the ad-free service, you’ll need to subscribe to Premium. However, if you’ve ever tried to subscribe to Spotify Premium on your iPhone, you may have noticed that there’s no way to do so—no “pay now” button, no link to subscribe elsewhere.
Apple tax
This is because Spotify didn’t want 15-30% of the money you gave it to go directly to Apple . This is exactly how Apple’s (and mostly Google’s, for that matter) App Store works. For any payments you make in an app on your iPhone, Apple gets a discount of 15% or 30%, depending on how much money the app paid or how long the subscription lasted.
Spotify and apps like it don’t have to pay Apple tax if you make out-of-app purchases: for example, subscribing to Spotify Premium through Safari means Spotify gets 100% of the money. Apple knows this, which is why it traditionally prevents apps from linking to external payment sites. According to them, if you want clients to pay for your services directly, you either need to go through the app and pay a fee, or hope they find it on Google themselves.
The Spotify app had a Premium tab, even for free users, but it only informed those users that these subscriptions existed and that they needed to subscribe through a web browser if they wanted to sign up. (The app even admitted that it was a nuisance, without directly blaming Apple.)
Spotify can now direct you to its own payment site
That all changed this week : Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple cannot in any way prevent developers from redirecting their users to third-party websites to make payments or charging any fees for purchases made outside the app. This means apps like Spotify can add updates to their apps that include links to their own websites for payments and subscriptions.
Apple says it will comply with the decision, but will still appeal it. In the meantime, however, the company appears to be in compliance as Apple has approved Spotify’s latest update. If you go to the Premium tab in the app, you will now see links to different subscription options.
This resolution did not appear out of nowhere. This is in response to Fortnite developer Epic Games’ ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Apple . Judge Rogers disagreed with most of Epic’s claims in the 2021 decision, but ruled that Apple needed to allow developers to direct customers to third-party payment options. Apple has broken the rules here by introducing new fees on out-of-app purchases, as well as sending out messaging to convince customers to ditch these third-party sites. Judge Rogers was unhappy, naming Apple executives (including CEO Tim Cook) and holding the company in civil contempt. Apple could also be held liable for contempt of court.
Apple may have had a particularly bad day in court, but apps like Spotify are probably quite happy. So, expect to see more options for paying for things beyond the apps you use. Some may even charge less because it’s now easier to lure customers away from Apple app purchases. But not Spotify: the company didn’t offer in-app payments before and still doesn’t, so Premium still costs exactly the same.