Spotify has a profitability issue because Spotify has a profitability issue. period. that this gets ignored for "but apple...." is beyond ridiculous. Apple is NOT the cause of Spotify's profitability issue, see: recording industry lawsuit.The issue is the fact that Apple has a competing product that because of its nature as a 'first party' product does not have the profitability issue that Spotify does on their platform. All of the other talk Apple tries to push to deflect from this is rather immaterial.
I mean Netflix/Apple is tough to nail down.. two massive companies who benefit symbiotically from each other.. but it should be noted that Netflix is playing by Apple's rules (not allowing subs through the app) AND is not suing Apple on this basis (nor are they as of yet joining in on Spotify's lawsuit... which is a bit telling)That misses the point I was making. I was making the point that you can't complain that Netflix only pays $99 because Apple literally wouldn't sell as many devices (especially Apple TV) if Netflix wasn't available. They're bringing Apple revenue in more than one way.
welcome to the retail industry and store brands, for oh about the last 70 years..... if Spotify doesn't like competing against the store brand at the same price they can.... not sell their subscription on the store.The flip side of that is by charging 'industry norm' Apple makes more margin due to not needing to pay anyone a cut. This allows them to pay artists more, which puts pressure on negotiating rounds to increase payouts, which can make '$9.99 but pay 30% to platform holder' unsustainable, but '$9.99 and keep 100% yourself' ok.
also the "but keep 100% for yourself is doable" is disingenuous, but I think you know that.. if it weren't... they wouldn't currently be suing the recording industry. Let's not for a moment pretend that Spotify is anywhere near profitable, NOR pretend that that is even mostly the App Store cut's fault.