Spotify Subscribers No Longer Allowed to Pay Through App Store

Spotify will no longer allow customers who previously subscribed to the Spotify streaming music service through the App Store to continue to pay using Apple's platform, reports Variety. Spotify has started sending emails to subscribers who pay using an ‌App Store‌ subscription to let them know that they'll need to make changes.

Spotify has not allowed customers to sign up for a Spotify Premium subscription through the ‌App Store‌ for the last seven years. ‌App Store‌ Spotify subscriptions were in fact only available for a two-year period between 2014 and 2016, but some longtime subscribers have continued to pay for Spotify through the ‌App Store‌ since that time.

In emails to customers, Spotify says that it is no longer accepting Apple's billing service as a payment method.

"We're contacting you because when you joined Spotify Premium you used Apple's billing service to subscribe. Unfortunately, we no longer accept that billing method as a form of payment."

At the end of the final billing period, Spotify customers who have a subscription through the ‌App Store‌ will have their accounts transitioned to the free ad-supported service. Customers will then need to resubscribe to Premium using the Spotify website.

There is no mechanism for subscribing to Spotify through the Spotify app, as Spotify has restricted signups to its website in order to avoid paying Apple's fees. "You can't upgrade to Premium in the app," reads Spotify's "Premium" section in its iOS app. "We know, it's not ideal." For customers who have been continuing to pay through the ‌App Store‌, Apple has been taking a 15 percent cut, which Spotify no longer wants to pay.

Given that Spotify has not allowed signups through the ‌App Store‌ for multiple years, this change is not likely to impact many Spotify customers.