Speaking rather frankly on IRC, Last.fm's co-founder Richard Jones has condemned Apple's move to grab 30% of content-based subscription fees: "Apple just f***** over online music subs for the iPhone."Jones' apoplectic outburst is just one of many, too. Rhapsody yesterday said it won't bow to Apple's subscription policy, and CEO of on-demand music streamer we7, speaking to paidContent, thinks that the 30% share "makes music subscriptions economically unviable." If big-hitters like Spotify and Rdio can't produce the 30% that High Lord Jobs demands, how can they possibly continue to provide their services to iOS apps without increasing their price? The crazy thing is, because of Apple's price-matching ultimatum, everyone -- including users of other smartphone platforms -- will have to pay the higher price.
On another front entirely, according to some law professors quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Apple's move could even be kiboshed by antitrust and anticompetitive legislation. These could be interesting times indeed.
While leveraging its massive and wealthy userbase to get a slice of the subscription pie might've sounded great on paper, 30% might simply be too much to ask for. At the very least, it looks like Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, Last.fm and Rdio users are destined to pay a few dollars more per month. Or perhaps content providers will simply stick it to iOS and decamp to Google's dirty, bohemian app ecosystem.
'Apple just f***** over online music subs for the iPhone' -- Last.fm co-founder on Apple's 30% cut originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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