Spotify fires shots at Apple over new subscription bundle

Apple has launched its all-in-one discounted subscription bundle, saying Apple One “coming later this year” to Australia as part of a planned global roll-out across 100 territories.

Australia will get all three bundles on offer, including the top-of-the-range Premier which will only be available in four countries when it finally hits the market.

Individuals pay $19.95 a month for Music, TV+, Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage.

Separately, and without factoring in student discounts, it would have cost at least $29.45.

The Family plan for up to six people is $25.95 includes 200GB of iCloud storage, while Premier at $39.95 adds News, Fitness and even more iCloud storage (2TB).

It will only be available in Australia, US, UK and Canada where News is already available and Fitness is set to join later this year.

The deal offers a 30-day free trial for any services that customers do not already have.

Apple One continues the tech giant’s move from its reliance on device sales to services.

Pictured: Apple One bundles its popular services together at competitive rates.

It’s been a hugely successful strategy, the division generating an all-time high of US$13.3 billion in Q2 financials after delivering $12.7 billion the quarter before.

Apple’s music streaming is a huge success, but its 60 million subscribers (as of June 2019) lags behind Spotify’s 138 million (as of June 2020).

Its video equivalent has struggled against Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

The company made the Apple One announcement via a live-streamed product presentation, which also included the unveiling of the next-generation Apple Watch and an iPad.

“With Apple One, you can access the best of Apple entertainment across all your favourite devices with one simple subscription,” Eddy Cue said, Apple’s SVP of internet software & services.

Pictured: Apple One includes its music streaming sercvces in all bundles.

The Apple presentation was followed immediately by a statement from Spotify.

“Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favouring its own services,” a spokesperson said.

“We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple’s anti-competitive behaviour which, if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.”

Spotify is not against bundling. In the US it packages Hulu and AT&T and Samsung devices.

Bundles are becoming the norm with Disney’s streaming offering Hulu and ESPN+, while Amazon bundles Prime Video and Prime Music.

But Spotify’s beef is that the US company unfairly uses its market clout against competitors, and was behind two EU antitrust investigations into Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay practices.

Its anger over Apple One is that its pricing shakes up the standard $9.99 monthly plan.

“Customers can discover and enjoy alternatives to every one of Apple’s services”, Apple said in response to Spotify’s statement.

“We’re introducing Apple One because it is a great value for customers and a simple way to access the full range of Apple’s subscription services.”