The aftermath of the ruling in the Epic Games against Apple case continues to play out. The essence of that ruling was that if a company’s app was available through the App Store, then it would now be possible for direct payments to be made to that company through the app without going through Apple’s in-app payment system. What that means in practice is that the days of Apple taking a large (27 percent, I believe) slice of any in-app payments would be over.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Last week, I reported mainly on Amazon’s introduction of a buy book function through its Kindle app. Spotify also hinted at changes, and this past Friday they submitted a wholly new version of the Spotify app to the App Store. The new version of the app would allow direct purchase of individual audiobooks. It would also allow premium subscribers to top up their hours if they listen to more than 15 hours of audiobooks in a month.
Epic Games Returns to the App Store
One further point worth noting, given that this whole situation came about as a result of Epic Games’ battle with Apple: also last Friday, Epic Games resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store. This marks the first time it will be available there since 2020, when Apple removed it after the game’s maker challenged Apple’s in-app payment policy.
The situation isn’t an unqualified good-news story, though. As you might expect, Apple is seeking to put a stop to the enforced changes. Apple has filed an appeal and is seeking to delay things in the meanwhile so that it can keep taking payments.
SoundCloud Clarifies AI Policy
Talking of apps, some news from the popular audio distribution platform SoundCloud. TechCrunch reported this week on a change in terms that went unnoticed last year and seemed to give SoundCloud explicit consent for uploaded content to be used to train AI models. That report prompted SoundCloud to reply with a clarification. This is not, they state, a move to make user content available to generative AI models. It is entirely to do with internal tools such as search.
Whether people find that reassuring or worrying will probably vary from person to person.
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