Spotify Will Let Subscribers Pay Through Google’s App-Store Billing System Under Multiyear Deal

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorFor years, Spotify subscribers have been unable to pay through Apple’s App Store or Google Play, as the audio streamer has resisted the tech giants’ demands to fork over up to 30% of the payments processed through their platforms.Now, Spotify and Google have reached détente on this issue.The companies on Wednesday announced a multiyear agreement that will give users who have downloaded the Spotify Android app from the Google Play Store the choice to pay with either Spotify’s payment system or with Google Play Billing.For the first time, the two payment options will live side-by-side in the app.

Spotify will be paying Google a cut of subscription fees under the new arrangement — which is some percentage less than 30%, but neither company would confirm what that number is — for any purchases made through Google’s app store.

Spotify has publicly railed against the practices adopted by Google and Apple’s app stores — and Spotify still does not allow customers to pay through Apple’s App Store.

Spotify sided with Epic Games, maker of “Fortnite,” in the game company’s legal challenge to Apple App Store policies for developers.Under their regular policies, both Apple and Google collect 30% of first-year subscription payments; that is reduced to 15% starting in the second year of a subscription.The new agreement “will give everyone the freedom to subscribe and make purchases, using the payment option of their choice, directly in the Spotify app,” Spotify said in a blog announcing the Google deal.