Spotify CEO joins Elon Musk in criticisms of Apple, App Store management

Yahoo Finance entertainment reporter Allie Canal breaks down Spotify CEO Daniel Ek's critical comments on Twitter about Apple and its App Store management.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Allie, while we have you, I also want to ask you about some of the headlines coming from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek earlier. He was joining in on what we've heard from Elon Musk and their attacks against Apple. He was basically saying-- he was very critical of the tech giant, calling them a bully. What can you tell us about this?

ALLIE CANAL: Yeah, and this is nothing new for Spotify, but this seems to be the story of the day, all these tech giants really ganging up on Apple. But the music streamer has been calling out Apple's controversial App Store practices for the past seven years. And then earlier this morning, on Twitter, CEO Daniel Ek posted a lengthy post.

He wrote, in part, quote, "As countless entrepreneurs have highlighted, Apple is shameless in their bullying, including our recent efforts to help authors sell more audiobooks." He said that Apple acted in self interest, adding, how much longer will we look away from this threat to the future of the internet? How many more consumers will be denied choice? There's been a lot talk. Talk is helpful. But we need action.

Now, these comments do come, as you mentioned, other prominent voices in the tech world like Elon Musk have weighed in. Musk specifically accused Apple of suppressing speech by requiring apps in its stores to abide by certain content standards.

But going back to Spotify, in October alone, Apple rejected Spotify's app three times in one month. That's according to "The New York Times." It claimed that Spotify's new audiobooks offering broke Apple's rules governing how developers can communicate with customers about online purchases. So this is something that Spotify is going to have to figure out down the line. And we'll just have to wait and see what comes of this. But certainly a lot of tech giants ganging up on Apple right now.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah.

SEANA SMITH: There certainly are a lot.

DAVE BRIGGS: Mark Zuckerberg added to the chorus today at DealBook as well.

SEANA SMITH: Exactly, he did. A number of CEOs jumping in on that. All right, Allie Canal, thanks so much.