Did Apple’s Feud With Spotify Prompt The Latter To Delay Support For Apple TV’s tvOS?

Apple TV users who may be waiting for Spotify to release its app for the Cupertino giant’s set-top box should, unfortunately, wait a little more as the Swedish music streaming company has no plans of launching one in the near future.

According to AppAdvice, fourth-generation Apple TV owners should not expect a native Spotify app, since project leader Samuel Erdtman has revealed in a GitHub discussion thread that Spotify’s support for tvOS “has been down prioritized.”

Erdtman was simply responding to a thread where developers were asking for an update about the Spotify app’s support for tvOS, the operating system of the Apple TV. In his response he even specified that people “should not expect a release supporting it any time soon.”

At present, Spotify users can simply stream audio onto the Apple device via AirPlay, it has yet to have a native app that would make it more convenient for Apple TV users to play songs directly from the streaming service. In effect, this has given a slight edge to Pandora and Apple’s own Apple Music, as per AppleInsider.

It is not clear what caused Spotify to remove tvOS support from its app’s priorities. AppleInsider claims this could be because the Swedish company considers Apple TV as a minor platform compared to iOS, Android and desktops. Besides, Spotify could be complacent that it has over 40 million Premium subscribers, while Apple has around 17 million subscribers at present.

Meanwhile, MacRumors says Spotify’s decision to set aside its tvOS support does not come as a surprise because the Swedish company quarreled with the Cupertino giant over the summer due to the latter’s demand of taking 30 percent cut from its iOS App Store subscriptions, prompting the former to charge $12.99 for subscriptions under Apple’s wing.

At the time, Spotify even came out to claim that Apple increased its cut “to harm competitors.” On the other hand, Apple defended itself by stating that Spotify was “resorting to rumors and half-truths” to get the public’s favor.