Apple Music Vs Spotify Trade War Hots Up

After a letter from Spotify’s general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to his Apple counterpart Bruce Sewell was mysteriously leaked to Recode, over the weekend Sewell’s reply was just-as-mysteriously leaked to BuzzFeed. He argued that rejecting the Spotify app was part of a pattern of behavior.

Talk to Spotify, and the company will claim that Apple is trying to strong-arm the service and push the agenda of its own streaming service, Apple Music, by blocking Spotify from releasing a new version of its app. The two companies are locked in the battle for grabbing music streaming customers.

Apple finally had enough when word got out that Spotify removed the $13 option and sent emails to its Apple app users urging them to purchase the service directly from their site, which is why Apple said “GFY” when Spotify tried to update their app. Apple has clearly drawn a line in the sand, pointing out that the new App Store now allows sellers of subscriptions (like Spotify) to keep 85 percent of the revenues instead of the standard 70 after the consumer has paid for a year.

“Spotify says that the rejection, “.raises serious concerns under both USA and European Union competition law. Gutierrez stated that Apple had a history of making Spotify less competitive on iOS smartphones and tablets because it is a rival of Apple Music.

Apple is blocking Spotify’s attempts to update the Spotify app, which Spotify alleges is a reactionary measure to Spotify’s subversion of Apple’s billing procedures.

In the letter, Apple told Spotify that Apple has been disappointed by the latter’s public attacks.

Instead of respecting Apple’s policies Spotify is allegedly spreading rumors and half truths, the lawyer said, according to Opp Trends.

“Shortly after Spotify submitted its app on May 26, our team identified a number of issues, including that the in-app purchase feature had been removed and replaced with an account sign-up feature clearly meant to circumvent Apple’s in-app purchase rules. I would be happy to facilitate an expeditious review and approval of your app as soon as you provide us with something that is compliant with the App Store’s rules”. The two companies have been competing in this market since the launch of Apple Music in more than 100 countries previous year. They estimate that, taking 30% of subscriptions to online music services they offer via App Store, the Cupertino company is gaining an unfair advantage. Since the time Apple has launched its app, it has been able to attract 15 million paying subscribers. According to some reports, Amazon.com Inc is also readying to enter the market with a standalone streaming service.