Is Spotify Preparing To Push Its App Center To Its iOS Mobile App?
Yesterday, Josh wrote about how Spotify is planning to push out a browser-based version of its music streaming service. Earlier today AllThingsD further confirmed this and added a bit more color: the price is not likely …
Context & Ripple Effects
Since Spotify opened itself up as a music platform in late 2011, its App Center has lived on the desktop client — a directory of third-party apps built on Spotify's catalog and APIs. Now the rumored move is to carry that directory into the iOS mobile app, just days after TechCrunch reported and AllThingsD confirmed plans for a browser-based version of the service, with pricing left unclear.
The mobile question carries extra weight because Apple has been in the loop from the start: it approved Spotify's iPhone app back in 2009, when the service first reached iOS. An app store embedded inside another company's iOS app is a different proposition, and both the App Center push and the web version remain unconfirmed by Spotify itself.
First-order effects
- Third-party developers with apps in Spotify's desktop App Center would gain a mobile distribution surface inside the iOS app, reaching listeners who never open the desktop client.
- AllThingsD's confirmation of the web version — while noting pricing details remain unclear — keeps pressure on Spotify to explain how free and paid tiers map onto a browser experience.
Second-order effects
- An App Center inside the iOS app hands Apple's App Review a new category to judge — an app directory within an app — reviving the gatekeeping dynamic last tested when Apple approved Spotify's iPhone app in 2009.
- If the App Center travels to mobile and web, rival streaming services face pressure to answer with their own extension ecosystems rather than competing on catalog alone.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward streaming music services consolidating into platforms: the player becomes a shell, and discovery, third-party apps, and distribution deals like the Deutsche Telekom partnership signed in August 2012 become the competitive layer.
- If Apple tolerates in-app app directories, the boundary between 'app' and 'platform' on iOS blurs — a precedent other media services would likely test.
The trend: Music streaming is shifting from single-purpose players to cross-surface platform ecosystems — desktop, web, and mobile — with each new surface forcing a fresh negotiation with Apple over what an app may contain.