Apple has approved an update to Spotify’s iPhone app that makes it the first major app to support direct links for US users to pay for plans on an external site, without restrictions. Apple has been forced to change its rules on external payments following an order in its ongoing case against Epic Games. The updated app, version 9.0.40, is rolling out now on the App Store.
“In a victory for consumers, artists, creators, and authors, Apple has approved Spotify’s U.S. app update,” Spotify spokesperson Jeanne Moran told The Verge. “After nearly a decade, this will finally allow us to freely show clear pricing information and links to purchase, fostering transparency and choice for U.S. consumers. We can now give consumers lower prices, more control, and easier access to the Spotify experience.”
Spotify submitted the update to Apple’s App Store yesterday, in what was seen as the first test of Apple’s new rules. The new version includes details on promotional pricing and subscription plans available directly from Spotify’s website, where its transactions won’t be subject to Apple’s 30 percent service charge on in-app payments. If you can’t see them yet, Moran told us that “it may take a beat” for the new options to appear on every phone, even if you have the latest version.
Apple previously included strict restrictions on how developers were able to advertise and link to external payment options, forbidding the use of buttons or any mention of cheaper pricing outside the app, in addition to a 27 percent charge on external payments. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers put an end to that this week, ordering Apple to end all fees, design restrictions, and “scary” pop-up language for external payments.
Spotify has long been one of the most vocal critics of Apple’s payment policies, and Moran had previously said that the “outrageous” external payment policy “flies in the face of the court’s efforts to enable greater competition and user choice.”
Patreon has also announced that it intends to submit an update to enable external payments, while Epic is readying its own alternative payment processing system with lower fees than Apple’s.
