Spotify has carved out a business for itself in music streaming, podcast entertainment and audiobooks.
Starting with a rollout in the U.K., Spotify is testing the waters for an online education offering of freemium video courses.
Mohit Jitani, the London-based product director for the education business, said in an interview that pricing choices were part of what it’s testing.
Around half of Spotify Premium subscribers have listened to education or self-help themed podcasts, Spotify says.
Offering educational content aimed at running a business, or improving your music production, fits with that.
The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) released a statement on Thursday cheering on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
The group includes a number of key app makers, including Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, Match Group, Proton and others.
In 2020, Epic made it possible for Fortnite players to pay Epic directly, rather than giving a cut to Apple.
Then, Apple removed Epic from the App Store, which sparked a slew of legal proceedings.
In a statement, Apple said: “This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.
Spotify is enhancing its audiobooks streaming service with a feature that may be familiar to the app’s music consumers: Countdown Pages.
For audiobooks, the Countdown Pages will allow Spotify’s users to pre-save books ahead of their release.
With the addition of the new Countdown Pages feature, Spotify hopes to grow the service’s adoption further by tapping into its larger global user base of over 600 million listeners.
Otherwise, Spotify’s free users can now opt into a standalone audiobooks subscription for $9.99 per month, which debuted earlier this month.
Countdown pages for audiobooks will launch in all markets where Spotify’s audiobooks are available, including the U.S., U.K. Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
Here’s the full list of countries where you’ll find music videos starting today: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Sweden and UK.
In addition to living in one of those countries, music videos also require an active premium subscription.
Instead of searching for music videos directly or browsing videos in a separate section of the app, music videos can be started from the “Now Playing” screen.
With music videos, Spotify is adding more video content to its app, beyond Clips (short videos of artists talking to fans) and Canvas (looping album artworks).
Apple Music also has music videos in a separate section on each artist page.
Spotify has revealed plans to increase subscription fees in France, in response to a new tax directed at music-streaming services operating in the country.
While all the impacted companies are opposing the new law, Spotify has been the most vociferous, largely due to the fact it is the biggest player in the country.
The company wrote in a blog post today:“With the creation of this new tax, Spotify would be required to give approximately two-thirds of every euro it generates to music to rights holders and the French government.
What’s perhaps the most telling part of this whole episode is how important France is to Spotify in terms of market traction.
With regards to France, Spotify is conveying as much — if not more — grievance with the new tax as it did with Uruguay, yet it has given no indication that it will exit the country.
Spotify said today that it has submitted a new version App Store that shows pricing and feature information about the audio company’s different plans in the EU.
The update, which is pending approval from Apple, also includes a link for users to buy subscription plans from Spotify’s website.
Earlier this week, the European Commission fined Apple a massive €1.84 billion ($ 2 billion) for the company’s anti-competitive practices in the music streaming market.
Buoyed by this decision, Spotify has submitted this new version with information about subscriptions, offers, and a link to buy those, as per The Verge.
In response, Apple said it plans to appeal EC’s decision and said that Spotify has been “the biggest beneficiary” of the App Store.
Indian firms whose apps were delisted by Google last week have begrudgingly started to comply with Play Store billing rules to get their apps back on the store.
A lot of protesting developers have opted for a consumption-only model for now, while others have opted for the Google Play billing.
And what about alternate app stores like the recently launched Indus app store from PhonePe?” Janakiraman told the publication.
Google also noted that the company has given developers three years to comply with Play Store rules.
Firms seeking regulatory actionThe firms that are protesting against Google’s move are looking for regulatory intervention.
Apple says it plans to appeal the historic €1.84 billion fine issued today by the European Commission over Apple’s anticompetitive practices in the streaming music market.
Apple again stressed that Spotify pays Apple nothing in terms of App Store commissions because it sells its subscriptions only on Apple’s website.
“They want to use Apple’s tools and technologies, distribute on the App Store, and benefit from the trust we’ve built with users — and to pay Apple nothing for it,” Apple says.
“In short, Spotify wants more.”Apple says that while it respects the European Commission, the facts don’t support the decision, and ” as a result, Apple will appeal.”“Every day, teams at Apple work to keep that dream alive,” Apple wrote.
“We do it by making the App Store the safest and best experience for our users.
Despite the EC ruling favoring Spotify and other streamers over Apple, the company was still cautious about how Apple would proceed.
So we’re looking forward to the next steps that will hopefully clearly and conclusively address Apple’s long-standing unfair practices,” Spotify wrote.
In 2019, Spotify first filed its antitrust complaint against the tech giant, which later led to the EU’s formal investigation of Apple’s App Store announced in 2020.
In April of the following year, the EU issued a statement of objections, accusing Apple of distorting competition in the market for streaming services.
And it noted that Spotify had a 56% share of the music streaming market in Europe, compared with Apple Music’s 11% share.
Apple’s new DMA rules have been widely criticized by developers and tech companies including also Meta, Mozilla, and Microsoft.
In the new letter, 34 companies and associations across a variety of sectors are asking the E.C.
Plus, because of the new fee structure, and the Core Technology Fee, it’s clear that few will agree to the DMA terms, the companies said.
Apple, meanwhile, also published a whitepaper today that outlines its solutions to address the changes the DMA requires to commissions and payments.
In response to the companies’ letter, an EC spokesperson told TechCrunch that the six-month deadline for Big Tech gatekeepers, like Apple, was there for a reason.
