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Comment by waboremo | Hacker News Reader

How else are they going to challenge the status quo? I'm confused by people acting shocked and appalled every time any other company brings up issues with the status quo.

Spotify wants to get into Audiobooks, Apple won't let them, Spotify wants to make a social ruckus so people are aware of who to blame and to demand change.

Before you consider the idea they should just quietly try to push regulation, consider without insane amounts of capital to go against the likes of Apple who will always have more, you need the public on your side. It does have an impact on regulation.

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Apple would definitely let them to get into audiobooks, Spotify just doesn’t want to give them the cut. As a platform owner Spotify takes a cut from the artists, aren’t they playing the same game as Apple?

If they somehow get regulators to allow 3rd party payments on App Store, that would be a terrible thing for the users. I don’t want to start giving out my credit card number to every random company I want to purchase content from.

The UX issues Apple rules create are legit concerns though, but it just kinda feels they’re used as a veil to get to the bottom line, which is to get around the IAP system. It’s always about the money.

Then don't. You wouldn't be forced to give over your credit card number to every random company. You're creating a situation that doesn't make any sense - somehow you trust them enough to provide you the service you want, but not enough to handle your credit card?

Just as you're able to see through the fact that it's not just about UX - let's stop pretending the issue of 3rd party payments is about consumer 'safety'.

The situation already exists on Mac for example and it’s very inconvenient imo to have to buy everything from a different website, trying to keep up who charges what and when, keeping track of the license codes etc. I’m not a fan.

> Apple won't let them

Not true at all. Apple's rules haven't changed in ages, they've defended them against Epic in court, and Spotify knew what they were when they started down this road, just like they knew the last couple of times they've tried to argue with Apple publicly (they're 0-for-2 so far, last time I checked).

Spotify can get into Audiobooks in multiple ways, they just don't like any of them. Apple isn't stopping them, they're just requiring their usual cut on IAP, and enforcing the usual rules. As usual.

Maybe Spotify should take the lead.

Allow third party payment services and music stores in their app. With 0% cut of course.

Spotify is saying the cut should be 0% for Apple?

The discussion hasn't been framed around what the percentage should be.

It's been that Spotify disagrees with the entire model.

I wasn’t seriously asking you. Obviously they don’t expect to completely bypass paying Apple anything. Making extreme counter points doesn’t help these debates.

Spotify complaining about a “mandatory 30% tax” doesn’t mean they want zero tax. The people who dismiss questioning heavily centralized systems as only wanting anarchy are being purposefully misleading. Just like every other time that happens.

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