iPhone Users Reporting Overheating And Battery Issues With Spotify On iOS 15

iPhone owners using the latest iOS 15 update have reported issues of overheating and battery draining when running Spotify. According to a support thread on the music streaming service’s official forum that was created last week, dozens of users have been reporting the same issue with one user even claiming that the music app drains through 30-40% of their iPhone’s battery every hour.

Initially, the forum’s admins responded by continuously giving generic advice, such as removing and reinstalling the app and suggesting users to try disabling Background App Refresh for Spotify on their iPhone – all of which were ineffective. Spotify finally acknowledged the battery drain complaints on Monday, and stated that the relevant team is working on the issue.

Besides that, there are also reports of similar issues occurring on older versions of iOS, including 14.7 and 14.8. Some users reported that the app would crash whenever their iPhones were locked, while others said that they have uninstalled Spotify altogether as a result of overheating issues.

As of now, there’s no confirmation on whether this is a problem with iOS or Spotify. One of the affected iPhone owners said they’ve tried using an older version of the streaming app and concluded that these issues only occur on newer releases, though they did not specify which versions exactly.

Spotify recommends that users always keep their app up-to-date for the latest patches, but gave no definitive timeline on when this issue will be resolved. Apple is said to be releasing iOS 15.0.1 soon, which would hopefully shed some light on the matter.

EU Regulators Accuse Apple Of Breaking Competition Rules In Dispute With Spotify

European Commission regulators sided with Spotify, accusing Apple of breaking EU competition law and abusing its monopoly over how music streaming apps are distributed through its app store.

This preliminary finding by EU officials means Apple has 12 weeks to formally respond. If the tech giant doesn’t satisfy regulators, the Associated Press said the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual revenue. Since Apple reported a revenue of US$274.5 billion (~RM1.1 trillion) in its latest financial year, it could be liable to pay a fine of up to US$27.4 billion (~RM112.2 billion).

EU launched an antitrust probe into the Apple App Store based on a 2019 complaint lodged by Spotify, CNBC said. Apple forces app developers to pay a 30% commission on all subscription fees that come through the App Store. It also prevents developers from informing users of alternative (and cheaper) ways to pay for subscriptions without going through the App Store.

Regulators zeroed in on both these practices as their key concerns.

Unsurprisingly, Apple lambasted the EU’s position as the “opposite of fair competition.”

“Spotify has become the largest music subscription service in the world, and we’re proud of the role we played in that,” Apple said, according to CNBC. “Once again, they want all the benefits of the App Store but don’t think they should have to pay anything for that.”

Spotify naturally applauded the stance of EU regulators. Relatedly, Epic Games has also filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the EU, in addition to suing the latter in the US.

Spotify iOS Code Reveals Car Thing Hardware

Hardware may be the last thing that you’d associate with Spotify. But it looks like the company has something planned, called simply the Car Thing. And it’s quite difficult to describe what it actually is.

MacRumors reports that images of the Car Thing were found in the code of Spotify on iOS. On one hand, it looks similar to what was previously found in the US FCC. But on the other, it looks quite different to what the company showed back in 2019.

All things considered, it’s not quite known what it actually does. And all we have to go by is its description in the FCC filing. And it reads “voice controlled accessory for phone/Spotify App with supporting display and buttons”. The filing also points out that the Car Thing is Bluetooth-enabled, can communicate with in-car units, and is powered by a 12V outlet, which likely refers to the cigarette lighter socket.

The iOS code also indicates that the Spotify Car Thing has a number of different mounts. These possibly reflect the common in-car phone mounts that let you attach your phone to either the top of the dashboard or an air conditioner vent.

It remains to be seen if Spotify will release this funky piece of hardware. If it does, it will probably need a different name. Or it can just throw a curve ball and go with the Car Thing.

Spotify Launches Website To Explain How It Pays Musicians

Under frequent criticism for exploiting artists, Spotify has launched a new website called Loud & Clear to better explain how it pays musicians – or in fact, how it doesn’t, not directly anyway.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the website is intended to “increase transparency and shed light on the complicated economics of music streaming.”

He claimed that, last year alone, Spotify paid over US$5 billion (~RM20.5 billion) in royalties and makes up about 20% of global recorded music industry revenue – more than any other streaming service.

Where does all that money go?

The website and nifty accompanying video makes it very clear that Spotify doesn’t hand money directly to artists, but rather to rights holders like record labels, distributors, aggregators, and collecting societies.

Spotify explained that it makes agreements with those right holders and pays them roughly two-thirds of the revenue it gets from subscriptions and advertising. Then the right holders will pay artists according to their contracts.

It sure looks like Spotify is saying, don’t blame us, go blame greedy record companies instead – an argument that has so far failed to convince many irate artists.

On Monday, artists and other music workers protested at Spotify offices around the world under a campaign organised by the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), Pitchfork reported.

Spotify was recently in the news due to a brief licensing breakdown with Korean music distributor Kakao, which caused K-pop songs to be temporarily yanked from the platform. Whether that confirms the case made by Spotify or its critics is hard to say.

Spotify: K-Pop Tracks Gone Because Of License Expiry

If you listen to K-pop on Spotify, you may notice many of your favourite tracks are now gone. The company has since issued an official statement explaining why this is the case. And it all boils down to the expiry of its streaming license agreement with the distributor.

According to Korean outlet Yonhap News, a Spotify spokesperson said that its original licensing agreement with Korean music distributor Kakao M expires today, on 1 March. And with that, the former has to remove tracks distributed by the latter. The company also claims that it has been trying to renew the license, but couldn’t get to an agreement.

The company also notes that the license expiry has nothing to do with the fact that Spotify launched in South Korea just last month. And the launch puts it in direct competition with Kakao M’s own streaming service, Melon.

This is a massive hit for both fans of K-pop who use Spotify, and the company itself. Kakao M is a major distributor of music in South Korea. For reference, it distributed 37.5% of the top 400 songs in the country’s Gaon Music Chart. And this is just following the streaming service’s initial announcement of its upcoming HiFi subscription tier.

Spotify HiFi Tier To Be Available Later This Year; Offers Lossless Audio Format

During the company’s Stream On virtual event last night, Spotify has announced a new subscription tier that will be made available later this year called Spotify HiFi. The name itself describes what this new tier is all about: hi-fidelity audio.

At the moment, the audio quality on the streaming service maxed out at 320kbps. While last night’s announcement didn’t reveal the exact quality that Spotify HiFi will bring to consumers, the company promises that it will deliver “CD-quality, lossless audio format” through it.

As a comparison, Tidal and Amazon Music do offer 320kbps stream as standard but they pushed things further by bringing in the 24-bit/96kHz option into the picture. On another hand, Apple Music doesn’t publicly reveal its audio quality rate although most sources stated that the service uses 256kbps AAC.

Spotify didn’t reveal how much the new HiFi tier will cost but in case you need a reminder, its Premium subscription currently costs RM 14.90 per month in Malaysia while the Premium Duo and Premium Family are priced at RM 19.80 and RM 23.80, respectively. The company also didn’t announce any actual launch date for Spotify HiFi, so we have to wait for a while until it is ready to roll out to consumers.