Everyone loves a good story.
And while reading is a wonderful thing, everything changes when you set off on a great adventure, unravel mysteries, or explore our world guided by a voice other than your own. That’s why we could not be more excited to bring more than 300,000 audiobook titles to Spotify listeners in the U.S. (next up: the rest of the world).
Spotify’s goal (as always) is to bring the best we have to offer to our fans around the world. And that means delivering an audio experience that’s intuitive on a platform where it’s easy for authors to connect with you, and even easier for you to dive into the stories you’re captivated by.
How we wanted to deliver on iOS
Open Spotify app
PURCHASE YOUR NEW FAVORITE AUDIOBOOK
Enjoy!
Unfortunately, Apple sees things differently—because fair competition is the last thing Apple wants. So, Apple is forcing iOS users like you to jump through extra hoops (as many as 10 hoops and counting).
Here's what Apple won’t allow you or Spotify to do:
Purchase an audiobook
in the Spotify app on iOS without using Apple’s overpriced and inferior IAP
Explain why you can’t
purchase audiobooks in the Spotify app on iOS
Explain where or how
to make an audiobook purchase outside the app
include a link
to send you directly to an audiobooks purchase page outside of iOS
Send you an email
(that you ask for!) that includes easy to follow audiobooks purchase info
Answer your questions
about audiobooks via an email you’ve asked for (even without our mentioning of purchasing or pricing)
Tell you the cost
of the audiobook in the app or in a subsequent email
Give you tips
to find your way through this convoluted process
Spotify has tried time and time again to appease Apple in a way that will follow their rules but won’t make the entire experience terrible—and Apple has said no each and every time, and they send us back to the drawing board without clear direction. Our initial flow? REJECTED. Our first fix? REJECTED. Our second fix? Again, REJECTED. The third fix? Approved, but an experience dictated by Apple at your expense.
If you’re new here:
Apple doesn’t just make the rules. They also arbitrarily change them to favor their own services and punish app developers who choose not to implement in-app purchases (IAP). And in this case that means audiobook listeners as well as authors and publishers bear the brunt, too.
With this new audiobooks offering, we’re hoping to unlock a huge opportunity for authors and publishers to connect with hundreds of millions of Spotify listeners around the world—like we did with podcasts and music.
But Apple rules are artificially constraining the potential for audiobooks to enrich our lives every day. It’s just not fair, but that’s the game they play. Over and over again.