Spotify accuses Apple of anti-competitive practices in a press statement provided to an American publication, this coming just a few days after The US Department of Justice has initiated an investigation against Apple. Apple is accused by the American authorities of trying to use its influence to compel major US record companies to prevent the renewal of Spotify's licenses to allow free audio streaming.
Today's accusations are of a different nature, those from Spotify claiming that the percentage of 30% of the price of an application, or of an in-app purchase, charged by Apple for sales made through the App Store is too high. Spotify's premium service has a normal price of $9.99 if it is purchased from the American company's website, but the purchase through in-app purchase from the App Store has a price of $12.99, the difference being the commission charged by Apple.
Spotify claims that this commission is practically an "Apple tax", referring of course to the American gangsters who charged commissions to people who did business on their territories in American cities. Separately from Spotify, the American authorities are investigating whether Apple's competitive practices extend to Google's relationship with YouTube, which also offers the possibility to listen to music or video clips for free.
Apple charges a 30 percent fee towards any sales through its App Store, and that includes subscription services. That means if Spotify wants to sell its premium subscription service — which usually costs $9.99 a month — through the App Store, it has to raise the price 30 percent higher to $12.99 to pull in the same revenue, while Apple can still offer Beats at a lower price. Spotify and many others in the music industry believe Apple's App Store tax gives them an unfair advantage over the competition.
Apple hopes to sell his new audio streaming subscription at the price of 5 dollars per month, but he failed to convince the major record companies in the US to accept his terms, not even at the price of 8 dollars per month for him. Faced with the reservations of the record companies, those from Apple are trying to use their "weight" to force their future partners to accept their conditions and affect the functioning of competing services.
If Apple will be successful in its initiative or not, we will find out on June 8, when the opening conference of WWDC 2015 takes place, then the new Music application and streaming service specially designed for it will be presented.
