This may sound like a snippy question, but I'm genuinely curious as to why this is considered news? Isn't this just getting another payment option, similar to what many, many other services have been offering for over a decade? Seriously, am I missing something?
Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
211–220 of 392 posts
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, Spotify is allowed to charge 30% for access to the market it has created, but Google and Apple are not? An app store costs money too - the creation and maintenance of the billing platform/API, bandwidth, human curation, cross-device storage of saved configurations, user acquisition, etc. What makes musicians so different from software developers that it's perfectly acceptable for Spotify to take such a large shar…
The problem with this line of argumentation is - why single out phone OS providers as the only link in the very long supply chain that deserves a cut? Why not internet provider? Verizon's infrastructure costs money, too - should they also be eligible for a 30% tax? The data will be transmitted through Cisco routers or Nokia's BTS - it costs a lot of R&D to develop those What about the phone manufacturer - Xiaomi or S…
Because those other companies are paid for their service directly. You don’t directly pay for the app stores.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#213I'm sure Spotify will pass on the extra profit from the savings to the artists, right?
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#214Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems pretty fair, since if it was easy for an artist to undercut Spotify, they'd be doing it.
Just like the application developers on Google Play, Apple's app store, and Steam, eh?
The difference is the artificial limitation placed on Play Store listings and Apple App Store, versus the freedom of an artist to sell their music to any other platform (it's just that it would be far less successful).
The only "pull factor" Spotify has is the userbase, which is arguably fair. For Google, though, the "pull factor" is because you literally cannot sell directly to users through the Play Store.
One could argue (on Android) that it's possible that you can install third-party markets, and that's true, but there's also pretty big roadblocks to installing, whereas selling on another music platform is much easier in comparison. (Don't believe me? Send your father an APK file and ask him to install it. Let alone iOS where this is not possible at all..
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple and Google (and others) also allow loading credit using physical cards that you purchase at retail stores. I believe the stores get around a 5-10% margin on these, i.e. you buy a $100 gift card, and the store only pays Apple/Google $90-95. There is a definite cost to all these so 0% is unreasonable. Epic is trying to be the "good" games distribution store and they reportedly take a 12% cut. Something around the…
Unfortunately Epic can't honestly comment on what cut they're taking while their storefront loses immense amounts of money[1] - I agree that a lower percentage is probably a lot more reasonable but I don't think EGS can serve as that example. 1. https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-has-sunk-dollar500m-into-the-ep...
Losing money at first is how almost everything works.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#217"Chief Freemium Business Officer" is an interesting, genuinely not-made-up title.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why on earth would Spotify be getting a discount on GCP?
Bulk/multi-year commitments to a single cloud provider often come with steep discounts.
Ok sure, but that's not likely to have anything to do with app store pricing etc. That's just GCP trying to acquire customers. They're not going to start trying to punish customers for other decisions because that would be an incredibly way to shoot yourself in the foot. This is a problem AWS already sees a lot.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems pretty fair, since if it was easy for an artist to undercut Spotify, they'd be doing it.
Just like the application developers on Google Play, Apple's app store, and Steam, eh?
Less problematic actually. If you don't like Google's policies you're a bit screwed since they control the platform very thoroughly.
Spotify is just a convenience service in the end. They could sell their music through their own app, site, Magnatune, etc.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#220This may sound like a snippy question, but I'm genuinely curious as to why this is considered news? Isn't this just getting another payment option, similar to what many, many other services have been offering for over a decade? Seriously, am I missing something?
I'm also confused, as I think I simply pay Spotify for my premium subscription (given I joined Spotify using it mainly on the desktop). Which bit is new?