Those of us who are subscribed to premium services like Spotify Premium, YouTube Premium, or Amazon Prime don’t have to manually renew our subscriptions. The companies (very cleverly) have an automatic renewal system that keeps your subscription going indefinitely as long as you have a valid payment method associated with it. But that’s going to change for iPhone users.
Spotify has notified its Premium users this week that Apple’s in-app purchase system will no longer be a valid payment method for subscribing. Spotify’s Premium service offers various features, including ad-free listening and the ability to choose specific songs instead of random selection, which is available in the free tier.
Spotify stopped supporting Apple’s in-app purchase system as a payment method back in 2016. The reason behind this decision was Apple’s commission fees for in-app purchases on the App Store, which became widely known during the Epic vs. Apple trial. Apple used to charge a 30% commission for every purchase made within an app downloaded from the App Store, a practice that Spotify strongly opposed. Consequently, Spotify discontinued support for the in-app purchase system. However, the company continued to honor existing subscriptions made through this payment method.
According to Variety, Spotify has now sent an email to all users subscribed to Premium through Apple’s in-app purchase system, informing them that they “no longer accept this billing method as a form of payment.” The email explains that once the users’ current billing cycle ends, they will revert to the free tier and will need to resubscribe using a credit card or PayPal.
Yes, it’s not the end of the world, and most users probably won’t have any issues with this change beyond the inconvenience of having to resubscribe manually. Just like the workforce restructuring carried out in June, Spotify is now looking to maximize its profits by eliminating all commission payments to Apple. By doing so, Spotify aims to optimize its earnings as much as possible.
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