Apple and Google cut their middle-man costs for subscriptions in-app
Apple and Google have both revealed plans to cut their percentage take from subscriptions in their respective mobile app stores.
Apple and Google’s mobile stores have been criticised for their charges, taking a 30% cut off each in-app purchase. This was most impactual on purchasing subscriptions in-app, which required companies to either lose out by reducing their cut to keep it the same price or bump up prices to receive the same, but force users to sign up at an extra charge just because of their platform.
Whilst they will continue to take a percentage of profits from apps their cut is being reduced to 15%, Apple revealed this week. There is a catch to Apple’s new promise of 85% share to the company, that being that for the first year they will still receive 70%. Once their subscriber has been paying for a subscription for a year then the company gets to keep 85% of their subscription charge for that subscriber.
Shortly after Apple’s announcement Google revealed that they will be moving to a 85/15 split for subscriptions purchased through their app store. Google didn’t just steal Apple’s thunder with this move but one upped them as Google’s deal is applicable straight away, without a years dedication before the company itself can start benefitting more.
This is big news for music streamers who have taken issue with the policies in the past, in particular Spotify with Apple’s store. Spotify notoriously urged users to stop paying for Spotify Premium through the Apple App Store, where they were being charged $12.99 instead of the usual $9.99 thanks to Apple’s charges. Fortunately there’s a simple work around by just signing up on another platform then logging in on mobile after.
So these new changes could mean that Spotify users paying through Apple could see their monthly cost reduce to $11.50 after a years dedication… It’s something. Whether this resonates further than a news story will have to be seen when Apple applies the changes on June 13th.