Google admits Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal | TechCrunch

I’m not a big fan of the high fees, but I’m even less of a fan of big developers being treated differently than the little guy.

And Spotify pass these savings onto the artists, right?

No fees when users choose to pay via Spotify (which had been the case and only option since the beginning, until User Choice Billing was implemented).

If users choose to pay with Google Play Billing, Google keeps 4%.

Even so, what I find hypocritical is that Spotify got this deal and seemingly agreed to keep it under wraps, without advocating for it to be extended to all other music streaming services in the platform.

Because... having a deal with the platform holder that gives it unfair advantage over the competition is exactly what they accuse Apple of doing with iOS.

Sauce: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/20/23969690/google-spotify-android-billing-commission-secret-deal

The game is rigged

Kind of weird, considering they're a major competitor, but so what? Why is this something they need to "admit"?

We're totally screwing the artist, so we'll give you a cut if we don't pay any gees.

Yea no shit, idk if it's just for my region or what, but Spotify does not manage their subscription through the play store. Makes it more annoying to cancel it too, which the execs at Spotify probably see as a plus.

What alternatives do you guys use besides Bandcamp? I am open to paying a sub as long as the artist is getting a decent cut.

Idk if Bandcamp is better, but there I buy my beloved albums with a big tip. The only thing I dislike is many artists default to PayPal for their merch. Ah, and they got owned by someone like Tencent or Epic?

Its not a bug, its a feature. The end game has lots of backdoor deals.

So they don't pay fees, they dont pay artist and they never made a Profit. But for some fucking reason are allowed to dictate the music industry.

For anyone reading this, that still uses Spotify, a big fuck you from the heart of an artist!!! You're the reason that abominations like Spotify are able to continue....

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The details surfaced today after Google requested the court to keep the specifics of its deal with Spotify sealed earlier in the month.

This fee could be reduced to 11% due to programs like user choice billing, which allows developers to use their own or third-party payment solutions.

Earlier this month, The Verge reported that the search giant offered Netflix a deal in 2017 to just pay a 10% fee on Play Store for subscriptions.

Last month, the Mountain View-based company reached a settlement with Match Group to let the dating app giant use third-party billing solutions on the Play Store.

Match Group’s rival Bumble was part of the user choice billing program pilot started in November 2022.

Epic, however, rejected Google’s offers to adopt user choice billing and went to trial earlier this month.

The original article contains 382 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

As someone who have distributed on all platforms, Spotify is still the best. Sure it doesn't pay that well, but it does enable your songs to get discovered and played

Rare Epic W