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Spotify, Rhapsody have cut ties to their iOS apps

A friend pointed out to me this morning that i really should have checked up on the other content providers in iTunes because ebookstores weren’t the only ones affected by Apple’s greed.

He was right. Last Thursday  saw new app updates from both Spotify and Rhapsody. And guess what? Both listings state that the only change was that the app dropped the subscription link. These streaming music apps are now as crippled as Netflix or the reading apps that fell victim to Apple over the weekend.

At this point I’m not sure what’s left to be said. I had expected this as far back as March, actually. All the news stories talked about the ebookstores, but Apples vig applied to all the content distributors on iOS.

The really absurd part was that this outcome was completely predictable. None of the major ebookstores could have afforded to pay Apple’s vig, so they had no choice but to tell Apple (politely) to go piss up a rope. And if you have Amazon and B&N refusing to comply, was it any surprise that other content providers ducked behind them as well?

I don’t know if Netflix, et all could have afforded to pay Apple’s vig, but I do suspect that Amazon’s intransigence kept everyone else holding out just long enough that Apple changed the rules again.

And so Apple’s greed has left us with this broken customer-hostile system where you can use the apps but you can’t actually spend any money.

iTunes, iTunes

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Comments


fjtorres July 25, 2011 um 12:08 pm

Anbody notice that Jobs these days is looking a whole lot like Gollum? 😉

Nate Hoffelder July 25, 2011 um 12:13 pm

He did look sickly at the last event.


Amazon, others cave to Apple on in-app purchases today, HTML5 tomorrow | ZDNet July 25, 2011 um 2:12 pm

[…] In other words, the strategy appears to be that it makes sense to cave to Apple now, monitor and then move to HTML5. These players will say screw iOS here’s the HTML5 version. What remains to be seen is how joint customers will react. Today a few buttons disappear, but the back-and-forth is likely to continue. The end destination is likely to be HTML5. There could actually be an iOS exodus that’s just starting. Will players like Netflix and Spotify—also caught in the in-app purchase skirmish—stick with crippled iOS apps? […]


Jane July 25, 2011 um 7:25 pm

Maybe this is Apple’s helpful way for us to weather the impending recession.


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