Spotify is engaged on an replace that might permit iPhone customers within the US to buy audiobooks by exterior hyperlinks. In a post on Friday, Spotify says it has submitted the replace to Apple, and if authorized, it could additionally let Premium customers purchase “top-ups” for extra audiobook listening time.
The change is available in response to final week’s order issued by Epic Video games v. Apple Decide Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who discovered Apple was in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction. The choose ordered Apple to cease taking an as much as 27 p.c fee on purchases made by exterior hyperlinks, and likewise blocked the corporate from proscribing how builders direct customers towards purchases outdoors the App Retailer.
Including hyperlinks and pricing information for audiobooks can be a serious change to the app. Spotify beforehand tried to get round Apple’s restrictions by not displaying the value of audiobooks within the app, and as a substitute emailing customers a hyperlink to buy the audiobook they need on the internet. Spotify finally pulled audiobook purchases from iOS altogether.
“It helps stage the taking part in subject by permitting builders to supply fundamental pricing info and easy-to-access hyperlinks to buy digital items by iPhones with no pointless steps or extra taxes levied by Apple,” Spotify says within the publish. “Briefly, this freedom is a win for authors, audiences, and builders in all places — if Apple approves and if the authorized ruling stands regardless of Apple’s continued makes an attempt to cease it.”