Spotify might be ready to call a truce with Apple that would allow iPhone users to tell Siri to play songs from the world’s most popular streaming service.
The news is surprising given that back in March Spotify filed an antitrust complaint in Europe against the tech giant, accusing Apple of abusing its control of the Apple App Store in such a way that it restricts competition from other music streaming services. The complaint, which was filed with the European Union’s antitrust division, alleged that Apple has restrictions in place limiting the apps that appear in the App Store, and therefore limiting the services that compete with Apple Music.
Spotify went on to complain that Apple has made it “difficult” for those competitors to reach App Store users without using Apple’s own payment option, which, it has been widely reported, takes a significant percentage of transactions, at about 30 percent.
Horacio Gutierrez, Spotify’s general counsel, said at the time that “apps should compete on merits, not who owns the app store.”
Three sources told The Information that the discussions between the two companies involve new tools that enable creators of audio apps to allow their apps to work with Siri.
“We have no comment at this time,” a Spotify spokesman said. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.
The new tools were revealed at Apple’s annual developer conference in June, with the company adding the capabilities to an existing set of software tools for developers, known as SiriKit. One source pointed out, however, that even if a deal happens, Apple Music will remain the default music streaming service when Siri is asked play songs on Apple devices.
On April 13, a website Spotify created earlier in the year to criticize Apple included this statement: “Only recently, Apple announced that it will let us connect with Siri to play your jams…but fails to mention our name (‘I want to play [X] on Spotify’) and your HomePod will default to Apple Music.”
