Spotify

It’s happened, Spotify has finally launched a miniplayer for desktop that supports music and video (including podcasts). As shown above, you can use a few designs including a minimal bar, or resizable square or rectangle.

Apple was recently fined 1.8 billion euros (about $2 billion USD) by the European Union commission, which argues that the company abuses its dominant position to harm Apple Music competitors on iOS. Even so, it seems that the company still has unresolved issues with Spotify, its main competitor, which is now accusing Apple of blocking its app updates in the EU.

Spotify on Thursday announced that it is bringing its “Jam” real-time listening party feature to its desktop users. The feature was introduced last year on Spotify’s iOS and Android app and lets users create real-time listening sessions that other people can join from wherever they are.

My colleague yesterday referenced the fact that Spotify is demanding greater freedoms from Apple, but hasn’t yet taken advantage of the ones already offered to the company. Key among these is the company’s failure to implement Spotify HomePod support.

It seems pretty ridiculous to complain that Apple Music has an unfair advantage over Spotify, while at the same time failing to take advantage of a clear opportunity to partly level the playing field – and keep your HomePod-owning subscribers happy …

We noted yesterday that Spotify welcomed Apple being fined $2B for antitrust offences relating to streaming music services.

The tone of the company’s response, however, strongly suggests that it believes the iPhone maker will repeat what some have described as Apple’s “malicious compliance” in another antitrust case …

Apple will soon roll out major changes to iOS users in the EU as part of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation. However, many developers have been unhappy with Apple’s proposals to comply with the DMA. Because of this, Spotify and dozens of other companies have now shared a letter to the European Commission complaining about “Apple’s lack of DMA compliance.”

Spotify is out with its newest feature today – Song Psychic. The mystical new option is hoping to offer some “cosmic guidance” wrapped in a fun musical experience. Here’s how to try it out now.

Apple Music appears to be beta testing integration with a service called SongShift, for transferring music from other services into Apple Music. The feature is currently being A/B tested in the latest beta version of Apple Music on Android, according to user reports on Reddit.

Spotify reported a mix of good news and bad in its latest quarterly earnings report. The good news was that Spotify paid users hit 236M, up 4% on the previous quarter. Subscribers on the free ad-funded tier grew even more, up 5% to 602M.

The bad news was that the company, which managed a rare quarterly profit in Q3, returned to being a loss-making business in Q4 …

Spotify in-app subscriptions aren’t currently possible, thanks to Apple’s 30% cut – but the company has today previewed the experience it hopes to offer to European customers from March.

The streaming music company shows animations comparing the current in-app experience with the one it hopes to be able to offer once Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust law comes into force on March 7 …

With pre-orders open, we know which of Apple’s Vision Pro apps will be pre-installed – but we also know some major third-party apps have no current plans to support the device.

While there’s still time for things to change, it’s already clear that some developers have made a deliberate decision to stay off Vision Pro, going so far as to block their iPad apps from running. That’s likely for three reasons …

Apple announced yesterday that US App Store developers may link to alternative payment methods but will still have to pay up to a 27% commission. Now Spotify has shared an official statement on the matter saying the move “flies in the face of the court’s efforts” and urging the EU to prohibit fees for outside link purchases “swiftly.”

We learned yesterday that the European Union looks set to impose an App Store anti-steering ban on Apple. That is, Apple would no longer be allowed to prevent Spotify and other music services from linking to their own company’s website for subscription sign-ups.

The ruling we’re expecting is a narrow one, in response to a complaint filed by Spotify almost four years ago now, and will likely only apply to streaming music services. But the principle is a sound one, and is unlikely to pose any great risk to Apple …

Apple will soon be handed a major loss in its antitrust battle with Spotify in the European Union. According to Bloomberg, EU regulators are preparing a ruling that would prohibit Apple from “blocking music services from pushing their users away from the App Store to alternative subscription options.”

Apple could also face a hefty fine as part of the ruling, potentially reaching as much as 10% of its annual sales in the EU.

To avoid paying Apple a cut of its revenue, Spotify removed in-app purchases from the Spotify for iOS app several years ago.

A report on Thursday claimed that Spotify was working to reverse that decision, but the company has now confirmed that it has no plans to do that, and in-app purchase support is not coming back.

A third round of Spotify layoffs this year will see some 1,500 employees lose their jobs in the run-up to the holidays. This follows the loss of 600 jobs at the start of the year, and several hundred more in the summer.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek described the move as a ‘strategic reorientation,’ but the company’s fundamental problem remains unchanged …

With Spotify Wrapped having launched this past week, I can’t help but think of three specific feature requests I’d like to see implemented into Spotify. As someone who works from home and spends a lot (76,589 minutes this year, to be exact) of time with Spotify on in the background, I am intimately familiar with the app and its foibles.

Following the debut of Apple Music Replay yesterday, Spotify Wrapped is also now available. This year’s Spotify Wrapped gives users the ability to view in-depth information on their top songs, artists, albums, and more. There’s also a new “Me” feature that assigns you a “listening character specific to your tastes and habits on Spotify.”