Elon Musk and Spotify CEO Spark Debate Against Apple’s App Store Policies

Elon Musk and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek began yet another discussion regarding Apple’s App Store policies over the weekend. In a Twitter exchange, Musk states that the App Store has a “serious scaling problem,” while Ek believes that the policies in place are “absurd.”

The conversation began on Twitter when Musk discussed the launch of the worldwide content monetization feature on Twitter. In a tweet, Musk states that all content creators can now enable subscriptions to their text, pics, and video. However, in a follow-up tweet, the CEO states, “It takes a few days longer for subscriptions to go active on iPhone vs web, as all subscriptions currently have to be approved by Apple.”

Ek then chimed in with a response of his own. Quote tweeting Musk, Ek says, “This is absurd.” He continues to debate what would happen if a platform were to propose a monetization split of zero or 10 percent rather than Apple’s standard 30 percent, as reported by 9to5Mac.

This is absurd… How would this scale with every creator on every platform on the internet? And what about if a platform thought the right fee was 0% or 10% instead of Apple's 30%? https://t.co/rolBNuXOvt

— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) April 30, 2023

Apple’s App Store policies have often been put under the microscope by users and certain app developers. Musk and Ek have long been critical of the guidelines in place. Upon the introduction of the revamped Twitter Blue, Musk declared that users could pay $10 a month on the web versus the $15 monthly charge on iOS to compensate for Apple’s 30 percent cut.

Daniel Ek has also been quite outspoken against Apple’s App Store policies. In the past, Ek and Spotify have argued that Apple does waver towards some anti-competitive behaviours. At one point, Spotify filed complaints with the company in the EU. In 2021, Apple was found to be in breach of competitive laws by the EU. The regulators believed Apple carved an unfair advantage by having Spotify give the company its 30 percent subscription revenue while Apple could offer Apple Music subscriptions without any drawbacks.

The Twitter exchange isn’t likely to bring any changes to the App Store or its policies. Instead, it’s a reminder that two of the largest CEO in tech will continue to remain critical of Apple.