Grandfathered Spotify Premium subscribers can no longer pay via the App Store

Since May 2016, subscribers to Spotify's Premium tier have not been allowed to pay for their service through Apple's App Store. That's because Spotify is not happy with the up to 30% cut of in-app transactions that Apple takes to process in-app payments made through the App Store. Prior to May 2016, Spotify's Premium subscribers had a window from June 2014 to May 2016 during which they could opt in to make their payments via the App Store.

But Spotify has decided to no longer allow these grandfathered Premium tier subscribers to continue making their payments through the App Store. In an email, Spotify told these subscribers, "We’re contacting you because when you joined Spotify Premium you used Apple’s billing service to subscribe. Unfortunately, we no longer accept that billing method as a form of payment."

Spotify is telling these subscribers that at the end of their next billing period their account will "automatically switch to our Free, ad-supported service… If you wish to keep your Premium subscription, you will need to re-subscribe after your last billing period has ended and your account has been moved on to the Free account." If the subscriber decides that he wants to rejoin the Premium tier, he will then have to decide how to pay for the Premium service using a payment method that Spotify accepts including credit cards and PayPal.

A Spotify rep said that it informed "a small number of users that a legacy payment method that their Premium account is attached to, is being deprecated. Users notified by email will automatically move to a Free account from their next billing cycle. Users will then have the option to upgrade to a Premium account by logging into their account at Spotify.com. These actions will help ensure that we can continue to provide a consistent best-in-class subscription experience for all our users."

In other words, once their current Premium subscription ends, those Spotify members who have been allowed to pay via the App Store will have to join the ad-supported free tier of service unless they resubscribe to Premium and pay through Spotify's processing platform using a payment method accepted by Spotify.

As it turns out, only a small number of Spotify's Premiumn subscribers pay for their subscriptions through the App Store A regulatory filing from 2019 revealed that Apple took a 15% cut on only 680,000 Spotify Premium subscribers compared to the more than 100 million Premium tier members that the streamer had.

Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission back in 2019 over the 30% Apple Tax. Apple accused the music streamer of using the App Store to help it grow over the years "without making any contributions to that marketplace." While Spotify has also complained about the 30% cut Google takes from in-app transactions made through the Play Store, Spotify and Google agreed last year to give those who are paying for Spotify via the Play Store the option to pay through Google Pay billing or via Spotify's billing platform.