ApplePay checkout is so smooth and amazing I wish all apps and websites supported it. More related to this, I am not on the Google ecosystem but if an app in the Appstore offered say something from a third-party and that of Apple's I'd choose Apple's all day long. Subscription management is so much better, I trust the payment platform, and it's all very seamless. That being said, if Apple were not so heavy handed perhaps the other providers could offer or plug into the Apple Pay system.
Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
351–360 of 392 posts
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know that a consumptionist attitude is popular these days, but as a user of something like Spotify I would surely prefer as much as possible of my monetary contribution ending up with Spotify and the musicians instead of in the hands of a company controlling the market place. To the people who think the exorbitant fees are okay: Imagine a world with no cash. Now the payment card companies decide they want 30% of al…
I don't think Spotify is the best example here, since I'm not particularly convinced that more cash going to them would end up in the hands of musicians. But certainly, if I subscribe to The Economist I want as much of my money as possible to go to the journalists who actually write the content.
Let me tell you, as a musician and artist, the miniscule portion provided to the artists who supply the content is a travesty and a crime. This new partnership only serves to add more hands in the pie and squeeze out any hope of increases for the content creators. Every time you click on Spotify you are fueling the beast. I make more money selling one vinyl record at one live gig than I will make on Spotify for months. All of this is great news except for the little guys!!!
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#353I do see one potential customer benefit: rather than increasing your attack surface by giving two companies your CC info you just give one (google). In theory Google is going to have more security than a bunch of smaller companies. I use Apple Pay whenever possible for this precise reason. I don't want to trust Target with my CC info. Of course since under this scheme the company I'd be sharing my card info with is t…
I don't understand the worry behind CC info. You are not liable for card-not-present fraud.
When it comes to personal data, CC info is always the least of my worries. Fraudulent card transactions are my bank's problem, not mine.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#354As a user, why would I choose this? I only see a benefit to developers for this, but from a user prospective going with another system is a downgrade. Assuming google works like Apple (correct me if I am wrong), disabling a subscription should be able to happen from a central location with a click or 2. If I instead go with the billing through a company not only do they now have my credit card information, but I have…
I know that a consumptionist attitude is popular these days, but as a user of something like Spotify I would surely prefer as much as possible of my monetary contribution ending up with Spotify and the musicians instead of in the hands of a company controlling the market place. To the people who think the exorbitant fees are okay: Imagine a world with no cash. Now the payment card companies decide they want 30% of al…
If payment processing costs 30%, you are expected to pay that as an end-user in the end. There is no "company will eat the costs". They will find ways to recoup that and reach similar profitability levels.
So by choosing the expensive way of paying, you will eventually endup paying more.
There is no shortage of ways companies can do that: "oh you want this new content, too bad it's for our premium gold users only", "ohh you want improved audio quality, here is upsell", "ohh, traveling a lot lately? Maybe we will limit the amount of offline content you can keep, but not in the premium diamond plan", etc
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#355As a user, why would I choose this? I only see a benefit to developers for this, but from a user prospective going with another system is a downgrade. Assuming google works like Apple (correct me if I am wrong), disabling a subscription should be able to happen from a central location with a click or 2. If I instead go with the billing through a company not only do they now have my credit card information, but I have…
> As a user, why would I choose this?
Because chances are the 30% fee will be simply passed on to the customer. I don't know if that's true in this case but this is a very common practice even with big greedy corporations that could definitely afford eating the fee (except many of them have just completely removed in-app subscriptions on Android and iOS already).
This is exactly why it's great to have a choice: if you're fine with paying a 30% fee on every single subscription for the peace of mind Google provides (protecting your payment details, easy cancellation, etc.) then that's your choice. But if you would rather cut costs and you trust the developer or are willing to risk it (generally banks will protect you from fraud anyway), you have the choice of direct payment.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is 2% to 3% in the US due to the copious rewards programs which result in minimum 2% cash back for credit card users.
But those are paid for by your bank (by charging high interest rates on the percentage of people who don't pay right away), not by MC/VISA.
The banks must be getting a piece of that because MC/Visa collect more depending on the rewards tier the card is in (Infinite/Signature/World and whatever other names they have).
Also, MC/Visa charge basically nothing for debit cards, and they do not take on any of the chargeback/default risk of credit cards, so I assume the rest of the fees are for the rewards for the most part. Which is why Discover/Amex fees are similar too.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spotify is public and you can see most of their numbers -- the Cost of Revenue for 2021 was 7 billion EUR on 9.6 in revenue. The cost is said to be mostly the royalties though it would include paying the many millions to some podcasters. The ad-supported users outnumbers premium users (236 million to 180 million) but bring in only 1/6th the revenue. So that's a factor depressing the payout per stream. https://investo…
It doesn't naturally follow that if I gave Spotify more money, they'd give it to the artists versus taking it as extra profit.
There is no proof that if Spotify gave the labels more money, that it would go to the artists.
I think Spotify is an excellent example of labels using a 3rd party to mislead where they money is really going when Spotify is paying nearly 80% of its income as fees to 3rd parties.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To the people who think the exorbitant fees are okay: Imagine a world with no cash. Now the payment card companies decide they want 30% of all transactions. You think that would be reasonable? Since we are heading to a world with no cash, what's stopping the card companies from doing that after there's no way back? This is why I use cash as much as possible - to delay that day.
> This is why I use cash as much as possible - to delay that day. A big thing discouraging me from using cash is how suspicious people are of you when you pay in cash. I've definitely gotten weird looks from cashiers when doing so, especially when you pay in larger bills (like $100).
The pharmacist turned me down from picking up my doctor-prescribed scheduled substance from CVS because I wanted to pay in cash and she thought it seemed suspicious.
Never went to CVS again, I assure you, but cash definitely has a stigma in some situations.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spotify is public and you can see most of their numbers -- the Cost of Revenue for 2021 was 7 billion EUR on 9.6 in revenue. The cost is said to be mostly the royalties though it would include paying the many millions to some podcasters. The ad-supported users outnumbers premium users (236 million to 180 million) but bring in only 1/6th the revenue. So that's a factor depressing the payout per stream. https://investo…
It doesn't naturally follow that if I gave Spotify more money, they'd give it to the artists versus taking it as extra profit.
Do you prefer to give the money to Google? Honest question, I don't mistake any of those companies neither with evil nor with NGOs.
Maybe Spotify should offer a discount.
Re: Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Assuming google works like Apple (correct me if I am wrong) While subscription cancellations work similarly, Apple holds your hand (from a dev perspective) than Google does. Apple's overall approach seems to just make sense. For instance: if you stop offering a particular plan because you don't want to offer it anymore (e.g. no more yearly plans, only monthly and quarterly). With Apple, you get a notification that…
Last time I checked (admittedly a long time on Apple, as a developer, I couldn't refund and cancel a subscription for my customers. They have to go through Apple to do that. Not a great experience.
In my experience as a user in the EU Apple's refund process is pretty good, I've basically never had a refund refused with the "right of withdrawal" option. But I guess it can suck if Apple randomly decides to refuse the refund even if the developer would be willing to accept it, especially for non-EU users.