It’s no secret that Apple is one of the strongest Spotify competitors, with its Apple Music offering. The two compete against each other, as well as with Amazon and Google, for subscribers in their music streaming offering. Spotify, earlier this week, complained to authorities about Apple’s business model, protesting about the “Apple tax”, with Spotify CEO saying that it offers Apple an “unfair advantage at every turn”.

In a rare press release, Apple fired back at Spotify, saying that it “wants all the benefits of a free app without being free”.

What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.

Apple goes on to address most of Spotify’s concerns in the press release, acknowledging that it approved “200 app updates on Spotify’s behalf, resulting in over 300 million downloaded copies of the Spotify app“. The press release continues by acknowledging that free apps aren’t charged by Apple, among many others. However, when an app uses in-app purchases, Apple takes a 30 percent cut in the first year, and a 15 percent share in the following years after that.

You can read Apple’s entire press release at the source link below.