Once again, Spotify is taking some very public shots at Apple, with the music streaming service accusing Apple of anti-competitive practices.
Yesterday (September 15), Apple announced it would be making a new bundle package that would be combining music, TV and cloud storage, among other services — a move that Spotify is taking serious issue with.
Shortly after Apple made the announcement, Spotify released the following message:
Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple's anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.
While it wasn't exactly clear at the time if this was in direct response to Apple's bundle announcement, it seems pretty obvious that it is. And Spotify CFO Paul Vogel doubled down on the anti-competitive accusations today while at the Goldman Sachs media conference.
"For us it's just about a level playing field and it's treating all products and services equally and making sure that someone isn't disadvantaged at the benefit of someone else — particularly if someone else owns a competing product," Vogel said [via Deadline].
He went on to explain: "For us, particularly with Apple, it's about being able to market and communicate with our users in a way that is is not restrictive. Right now there's a lot of restrictions Apple places on how we can market and communicate with our users, so we feel that's not right.
"Also, having to use IAP for everything. I think that's something consumers should have a choice [on]. To use something else, to use different payment mechanisms so we're not burdened by the restrictions they've put on."
According to Vogel, this whole thing will make it harder for Spotify to continue to improve its services and upgrade the app. "We don't want blockages on what we can do in terms of giving the best possible experience to consumers."
He then summed it all up neatly by saying: "And so that's really the three big things that we are looking for with a level playing field: the ability to market to our users properly, a payment system that works fairly for everybody equally across all platforms, and the ability for us to innovate and not get blocked."
Apple will begin rolling out its Apple One bundle packages this fall, with the plans coming in three tiers (Individual, Family and Premier). They will bring together a wide variety of Apple services, including music and video streaming, news, video games, fitness services and iCloud.
Yesterday (September 15), Apple announced it would be making a new bundle package that would be combining music, TV and cloud storage, among other services — a move that Spotify is taking serious issue with.
Shortly after Apple made the announcement, Spotify released the following message:
Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple's anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.
While it wasn't exactly clear at the time if this was in direct response to Apple's bundle announcement, it seems pretty obvious that it is. And Spotify CFO Paul Vogel doubled down on the anti-competitive accusations today while at the Goldman Sachs media conference.
"For us it's just about a level playing field and it's treating all products and services equally and making sure that someone isn't disadvantaged at the benefit of someone else — particularly if someone else owns a competing product," Vogel said [via Deadline].
He went on to explain: "For us, particularly with Apple, it's about being able to market and communicate with our users in a way that is is not restrictive. Right now there's a lot of restrictions Apple places on how we can market and communicate with our users, so we feel that's not right.
"Also, having to use IAP for everything. I think that's something consumers should have a choice [on]. To use something else, to use different payment mechanisms so we're not burdened by the restrictions they've put on."
According to Vogel, this whole thing will make it harder for Spotify to continue to improve its services and upgrade the app. "We don't want blockages on what we can do in terms of giving the best possible experience to consumers."
He then summed it all up neatly by saying: "And so that's really the three big things that we are looking for with a level playing field: the ability to market to our users properly, a payment system that works fairly for everybody equally across all platforms, and the ability for us to innovate and not get blocked."
Apple will begin rolling out its Apple One bundle packages this fall, with the plans coming in three tiers (Individual, Family and Premier). They will bring together a wide variety of Apple services, including music and video streaming, news, video games, fitness services and iCloud.
