Spotify and Apple Music, two of the world’s biggest music streaming service providers, have been at loggerheads for several years.
However, the friction between them has recently reached an all-time high. Let’s dive straight in to find out why this might be.
Why are Spotify and Apple at loggerheads?
Since 2019, the two companies, Spotify and Apple, have been at loggerheads for numerous reasons, including many legal, political, and PR disputes.
The bottom line is that Spotify believes its fiercest rival, which also manufactures iOS devices, including the iPhone series of smartphones, doesn’t play fair and claims Apple favours its own music streaming service above all others.
However, Apple has openly stated that Spotify must stick to the rules as set out in its App Store.
According to Apple, Spotify must accept that the Apple Music streaming platform has banned the use of other digital payment methods and must fork out at least a 30% cut of payments made on the Spotify platform via the App Store.
After stepping away from the viral Heardle music game, Spotify doesn’t offer any digital games in the UK.
Instead, the brand focuses on music streaming services, as well as videos, podcasts, and other content from creators across the globe.
For example, you can also listen to historical speeches, download short stories, poetry, radio dramas, audiobooks, learn new languages, and so much more on Spotify.
Apple recognises Spotify on its platform as a reader app, meaning it is permitted to provide a link within the Apple application that sends users to another website where they can manage their accounts, in this case, to Spotify’s website.
However, reader apps or streaming services like Spotify cannot reveal if their prices are lower via its website from within the Apple smartphone application.
Companies like Spotify have been doing this to avoid having to pay the steep fees, which have been labelled as ‘Apple Tax.’
At the same time, Spotify doesn’t allow its registered subscribers to upgrade their current plan within the app.
Viewing the current Premium plans pricing structure is possible, but you can’t purchase it using your iPhone and the Apple app.
Spotify has issued a message that everyone sees, which reads words to the effect of, ‘We know it’s not ideal, but you can’t upgrade to Premium in this app.’
The two companies have been at odds with each other since Spotify first filed its antitrust complaint about Apple to the European Union (EU), which opened up a can of worms and started a formal investigation into Apple.
Apple didn’t just sit there and take it. They released a statement addressing each of the issues that were brought to everyone’s attention by Spotify.
They even went as far as to say they would block access to Spotify products and future updates.
A class-action lawsuit was also filed against Apple on behalf of UK-based developers in July 2023 regarding the unfair 30% Apple Tax fees.
Other leading tech companies like X, Meta, Match Group, and Microsoft, to name a few, said these unfair fees are anti-competitive and hinder competition.
Just recently (March 2024), Apple’s App Store ended up receiving a hefty €1.8 billion from the EU for restricting streaming of music, thereby breaching EU anti-competition law. The company was found to have been limiting competition.
I’m looking for alternatives to Apple Music and Spotify; what ones are there?
If you are looking for an alternative to Apple Music and Spotify, some of the most trusted music streaming services worth considering in 2024 are the following:
●YouTube Music
●iHeartRadio
●Google Play Music
●Deezer
That’s not forgetting Qobuz, Amazon Music, Jango, SoundHound AI, LiveOne, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Tidal.
Final thoughts
The friction between Apple and Spotify will most likely intensify rather than fizzle out over the coming months, so we will have to wait and see how the drama plays out.
There’s plenty of distrust between the two, and both have fair arguments about who is in the right and who is in the wrong.