The App Store has “united” these executives!
Criticism of Apple’s App Store policies continues. Although they have reacted against them in the past, this time Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have joined forces against bitten apples, for the same reasons.
Executives from both companies took to Twitter to make their views known. Both Musk and Ek questioned Apple’s guidelines. Ek called them “absurd” and Musk said they had a “serious scaling problem.”
iPhone users expect more
The statements came after Twitter activated the “subscriptions” option for all users last week. In response to user questions, Musk explained why subscription availability is delayed on the iPhone compared to the web version of the platform.
Note that it takes a few days longer for subscriptions to become active on iPhone compared to web, as all subscriptions currently need to be approved by Apple.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2023
Note that subscriptions take a few days longer to activate on iPhone than on the web, as all subscriptions currently need to be approved by Apple.
Musk’s statements refer to App Store Guidelines on In-App Subscriptions for Digital Contentwhich Twitter must comply with as these new subscriptions are available through the iPhone app.
Immediately, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek quoted Musk’s tweeted post and again criticized Apple’s guidelines:
That’s absurd… How would that scale with every creator on every platform on the internet? And what if a platform thought the right commission was 0% or 10% instead of Apple’s 30%? https://t.co/rolBNuXOvt
—Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) April 30, 2023
That’s absurd… How would that scale with every creator on every platform on the internet? What if a platform thought the correct fee was 0% or 10% instead of Apple’s 30%?
In the past, Spotify has publicly expressed its disagreement with App Store policies. The company has filed antitrust complaints against Apple in the European Union, arguing that Apple can offer Apple Music subscriptions in its app without penalty, while Spotify would be required to pay Apple 30% (or 15% from the second year) of your subscription revenue if you wanted to do the same.
