Following Apple’s disparaging response to its complaint to the EU commission, Spotify hit back at the tech giant calling it a “monopolist”.
In addition, the music streaming service has launched a website, timetoplayfair.com, which outlines the timeline of its frustration with and complaints against Apple.
Spotify alleged in its complaint to the EU that Apple uses unfair practices in the App Store, highlighting its 30% cut it charges developers for subscriptions.
It alleges that Apple’s business practices are set up in such a way to give an unfair advantage to Apple Music.
Apple responded to the complaint to the EU commission with a strongly worded blog post, which according to a report in Variety, Spotify felt was “entirely in line with our expectations.”
The tech behemoth claimed Spotify masked its “financial motivations in misleading rhetoric about who we are, what we’ve built and what we do to support independent developers, musicians, songwriters and creators of all stripes.”
Apple did not respond to Spotify’s complaint of its 30% cut, and claimed that the music streaming service “wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.”
It also did not make any mention of the EU Commission complaint at all.
Instead, it took aim at Spotify’s appeal — along with Amazon, Google, and Pandora — against the US Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to raise rates for songwriters.
“At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated that services are where Apple is hoping to make its revenue in the future — leading the company to invest heavily in its upcoming news and content streaming services.
Apple isn’t going to back down, and if the back and forth is any indication, Spotify won’t either.
