Spotify Has Harsh Words About The Apple One Bundles, Despite Its Own Market Dominance

With over 138 million subscribers, one wouldn’t expect Spotify to be terribly bothered by Apple with its over 60 million Music subscribers, as of last July. However, the streaming music leader has in fact taken a hard stance against the recently announced Apple One bundles, which offer Apple Music in addition to other services like Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade.

In a statement, Spotify accused Apple of anti-competitive practices and urged “competition authorities” to restrict the tech giant in response to the bundles.

“Once again, Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services” Spotify’s statement read. “We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple’s anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.”

While the concerns about anti-competitive practices from tech giants like Apple are a legitimate and growing concern, Spotify might not necessarily have much high ground. As the Verge points out, the company itself is no stranger bundling its service with others in order to entice users, including partnerships with the likes of Hulu, AT&T, and Samsung.

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

Apple Music currently costs $9.99 a month, the same as Spotify. Apple One bundles, introduced at the company Time Flies event on Tuesday, will start at $14.99 a month for Music, TV+, Arcade, and iCloud storage. More expensive bundles will also grant multi-user access and add News+ and Fitness+ access.