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submitted 10 months ago by umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 203 points 10 months ago

I’m not a big fan of the high fees, but I’m even less of a fan of big developers being treated differently than the little guy.

[-] original_reader@lemm.ee 52 points 10 months ago

Some banks do this *** too. The more money you deposit, the less fees you pay. Because 'premium customer' and all this.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 43 points 10 months ago

Yep Chase for instance: over 75k on deposit, no ATM withdrawal fees anywhere! You know, helping the people who need it the least.

[-] spearz@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

Sorry for the ignorance, but you have to pay to withdraw money from your bank in the US?

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 25 points 10 months ago

From your bank in person, no. From your bank's own ATM, no. From an ATM run by another bank out of network, yes, there are often fees and your bank will waive them under certain circumstances.

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[-] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago

And charge you a monthly service fee unless you have a job (regular transaction into the account per billing cycle), which isn't a thing in other places.

Ripping off poor and jobless people. Yes.

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[-] riskable@programming.dev 8 points 10 months ago

Some banks? No. All banks.

Even credit unions do this. They may not have as many or as expensive fees as regular commercial banks but they still have fees and certain features aren't free. If you deposit $100,000 (or more) you'll find that a lot of those fees get waived, your interest rates will be better, and they will generally treat you better than the peasants with like $5,000 in their savings.

It's just another advantage that the rich have over every day people. Most of them take these things for granted or don't think they matter in the slightest. It never occurs to them that regular $3 fees or occasional $25 fees can have a huge impact on the poor and the middle class.

Full Disclosure: I work for a bank.

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[-] ButtDrugs@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think this is done to prevent anticompetitive issues. If Google were to profit off of both its own product (youtube / yt music) and also require its competitors to pay it a % of revenue, it would potentially open them up to more anticompetitive lawsuits.

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[-] Zip2@feddit.uk 106 points 10 months ago

And Spotify pass these savings onto the artists, right?

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 43 points 10 months ago

In effect, yes. Given that ~70% of revenue goes to rights holders, making the amount of revenue bigger by not paying 30% of subscriptions to Google, the savings are passed on to rights holders.

[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 9 points 10 months ago

So, not exactly to the artists. I get the impression you seem to know quite a lot about the deal, can you try to analyze how this 70% gets divided?

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 26 points 10 months ago

https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/royalties/

It's net revenue split to rights holders according to the share of streams. If you have 1% of all streams on Spotify in a given time period, you get 0.7% of net revenue for that period.

How the rights holders distribute the money onward to the artists is not exactly transparent though.

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[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

Nah the savings are probably being mostly passed on to stock buybacks and executive salaries

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 14 points 10 months ago

...I mean, 30% of the savings go to Spotify, so some part of it will indeed go to stock buybacks and executive salaries. Some of it will go to regular employee salaries, and some of it will go to pay for technical infrastructure, and some of it will go to pay for offices. Some of it will be spent on marketing, even.

70% of it will go to rights holders, though.

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[-] tinsuke@lemmy.world 97 points 10 months ago

No fees when users choose to pay via Spotify (which had been the case and only option since the beginning, until User Choice Billing was implemented).

If users choose to pay with Google Play Billing, Google keeps 4%.

Even so, what I find hypocritical is that Spotify got this deal and seemingly agreed to keep it under wraps, without advocating for it to be extended to all other music streaming services in the platform.

Because... having a deal with the platform holder that gives it unfair advantage over the competition is exactly what they accuse Apple of doing with iOS.

Sauce: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/20/23969690/google-spotify-android-billing-commission-secret-deal

[-] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

4% is basically just the payment processing fee (averaged out, since it's slightly different for every transaction). Spotify has to pay that regardless of how you pay.

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[-] Clav64@lemmy.ml 56 points 10 months ago
[-] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 48 points 10 months ago

Kind of weird, considering they're a major competitor, but so what? Why is this something they need to "admit"?

[-] Throwaway4669332255@lemmy.world 44 points 10 months ago

Stuff like this will be used in the anti monopoly cases going on world wide.

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[-] sebinspace@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Netflix makes heavy use of Amazon Web Services, specifically S3 Buckets. I’m sure there’s a special deal worked out with them as an anchor client.

Malls do the same thing. While they’re not in direct competition in the same sense as Google/Spotify or Amazon/Netflix, some stores don’t even pay rent in a mall because it’s expected that they’ll drive traffic to the rest of the stores. 90% sure Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, etc are some of these anchor stores that very often pay little or negative rent due to the sheer revenue generated by other avenues.

[-] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago

We're totally screwing the artist, so we'll give you a cut if we don't pay any gees.

[-] thepiguy@lemmy.ml 43 points 10 months ago

Yea no shit, idk if it's just for my region or what, but Spotify does not manage their subscription through the play store. Makes it more annoying to cancel it too, which the execs at Spotify probably see as a plus.

[-] PixelatedCleric@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 10 months ago

What alternatives do you guys use besides Bandcamp? I am open to paying a sub as long as the artist is getting a decent cut.

[-] downdaemon@lemmy.ml 15 points 10 months ago

Pirate and buy official merch, they make more of that anyway. Also live shows

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[-] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago

buy the cd and rip them into your phone

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[-] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Idk if Bandcamp is better, but there I buy my beloved albums with a big tip. The only thing I dislike is many artists default to PayPal for their merch. Ah, and they got owned by someone like Tencent or Epic?

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago

Were owned by Epic then sold to Songtradr last month

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[-] Dulusa@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

So they don't pay fees, they dont pay artist and they never made a Profit. But for some fucking reason are allowed to dictate the music industry.

For anyone reading this, that still uses Spotify, a big fuck you from the heart of an artist!!! You're the reason that abominations like Spotify are able to continue....

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[-] Whirling_Cloudburst@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Its not a bug, its a feature. The end game has lots of backdoor deals.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The details surfaced today after Google requested the court to keep the specifics of its deal with Spotify sealed earlier in the month.

This fee could be reduced to 11% due to programs like user choice billing, which allows developers to use their own or third-party payment solutions.

Earlier this month, The Verge reported that the search giant offered Netflix a deal in 2017 to just pay a 10% fee on Play Store for subscriptions.

Last month, the Mountain View-based company reached a settlement with Match Group to let the dating app giant use third-party billing solutions on the Play Store.

Match Group’s rival Bumble was part of the user choice billing program pilot started in November 2022.

Epic, however, rejected Google’s offers to adopt user choice billing and went to trial earlier this month.


The original article contains 382 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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