This coming from the company that wants to take podcasts away from the open Internet…
I’m annoyed lately about companies throwing antitrust comments around like free candy. Some people want to use the word interchangeably with good old-fashioned American capitalism.
Spotify is free to partner with Netflix, Peloton, etc to create their own subscription bundle.
We seem to have reached the point where any move Apple makes to add value to their customers (through extra value for their products) is being met by some really heavy blowback. I’m sure there is a degree to which there is blood in the water and rivals are trying to pounce, but the company trying to close the currently open podcast standard crying foul for something like this is a bit rich. It does seem like every detractor at this point just wants Apple to be the vessel for the developer to make money and Apple to stick to hardware. Even the independent developer community seems to be full of habitual whiners at this point, taking to their online outlets of choice to publicly pout every time a decision is made for which they disagree.
But back to the antitrust stuff, where is the similar criticism of Amazon in all of this? Surely Prime is much more widely adopted than Apple One will be any time in the near (or probably even distant) future.
Companies throwing around anti-trust complaints is as old as the Sherman Act. If you have a good lawyer and a remotely plausible theory, throw them at the other guy. Who knows, you might invent a chip to get some concessions, and some sympathetic eyeballs.
Nothing new here. Same bruised egos.
If Apple is bundling Music with other services too how much does the Artists get paid. Do they take a cut of it as music revenue is shared with other services (News+, Arcade, Activity). If so then Spotify need to reduce their pricing plans to stay in competition. Lower Family subscription I wonder it will happen though.
I have ears in the industry and I confirm that, as far as I know, it has not changed.
Side note, I’m thrilled about Premier. I’ll be saving money per month & getting more storage once this launches.