Spotify says Apple One bundle will cause 'irreparable harm' to developers

By Joe Wituschek
last updated

Apple One Icons Apple
Apple One Icons Apple (Image credit: Apple)

Update, September 15 (6:30 pm ET): Apple responds to Spotify's criticism of the Apple One services bundle

What you need to know

  • Spotify has responded to Apple's announcement of its services bundle.
  • The company says that such a service proves its antitrust concerns with Apple.
  • Apple one bundles together Apple's services into one price for consumers.

Today, Apple unveiled its long-anticipated services bundle: Apple One. Spotify, one of the companies that have brought antitrust complaints against Apple, has immediately responded to the announcement. In a post via Peter Kafka on Twitter, Spotify stated that, by offering a services bundle, Apple is favoring its own services over developers.

Spotify goes further to say that that services such as Apple one will "cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect."

"Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple's anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect."

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Apple One combines Apple's services into three separate packages: Individual, Family, and Premium. The prices range from $14.95/mo., which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud, to $29.95/mo, which adds Apple News+ and Fitness+.

Apple One Bundles

Apple One Bundles (Image credit: iMore)

Update, September 15 (6:30 pm ET) — Apple responds to Spotify's criticism of the Apple One services bundle

In a tweet from Stephen Ellis, Apple has responded to Spotify's criticism of its Apple One services bundle by touting the purpose of the package, saying that it is introducing the service because "it is a great value for customers and and a simple way to access the full range of Apple's subscription services."

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Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.

10 Comments
  • Really!, That did not take long... I am no rocket scientist but all of these Apple service currently exist as separate subscriptions. I happen to pay for a few of them. So now that Apple is allowing me to get them all, the one’s I pay for, pulse a few I don’t, with a simple combined payment as opposed to individual charges it is somehow a problem? All these services currently exist, correct? This in no way changes what I pay for or subscribe to so I have no idea how this argument holds weight. If they feel that someone who “possibly” is not subscribing to news and because of getting it in the bundle they will not subscribe to an alternate news service I think they are stretching the argument. The only viewpoint I see is for the very small segment where someone will leave a single alternate service that is covered in the bundle. The proof in that impact will be in real data and numbers not a unfounded fear.
  • So are they going to discontinue their bundles with Verizon?
  • No word yet, but doubtful. That's an entirely different kind of bundle. I imagine that, of course, customers who have that won't get any kind of discount on Apple One though.
  • Or they can learn, create and connect with other service providers? Okay, I’ll see myself out
  • Spotify can suck it with their anti-consumer stance! Maybe they should consider paying artists more per stream rather than fighting against a legal agreement to do so. Bundle bundle bundle bundle bundle bundle bundle!!! I am so excited about this aspect of the presentation today that I nearly wet my pants. I think the bundle plans are much cheaper than people anticipated and I will definitely save a ton of money with them. Everything else outside of this will fade away in my mind as a scream with excitement about the Apple One plan.
  • Same here! It's going to be a great value, especially for families. Family Sharing really takes it to another level.
  • So the Big Three music labels all collude to take a stake in Spotify but that will not harm competition. However, Apple bundling it's services is a no no?
  • Pick your antitrust!
  • Im curious of apples apple one bundle is harmful to developers, is my spotify bundle with hulu harmful to developers...oh of course not its only harmful because apple is a competitor
  • Yeah, it's going to be difficult to prove how one is fair and another isn't. We'll leave that to the lawyers when this all inevitably goes to court one day yayyyyyy