Google will let Spotify offer alternative in-app billing

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(Pocket-lint) – Perhaps in an attempt to please critics and lawmakers, Google has launched a pilot project in which it allows a “small number” of developers to offer a payment system on top of Google’s .

Spotify will be the first app to participate and has even announced a “multi-year deal” with Google. This means that it will offer the Google Play billing system as well as a secondary choice of its own.

“Users who have downloaded Spotify from the Google Play Store will have the choice of paying with Spotify’s payment system or with Google Play Billing,” Spotify said in a statement. “For the first time, these two options will co-exist within the app. This will give everyone the freedom to subscribe and make purchases using the payment option of their choice directly within the Spotify app.”

While it’s unclear how this will affect the fees Google takes from purchases made in the Spotify app using Google Play, Google said the pilot will help it understand “if and how billing user-selectable works for users in different countries and for developers”. Google also said in a statement to the media that it aims for “pilot developers to live with user-choice billing in 2022 in key markets.”

Keep in mind that South Korea passed legislation last year requiring third-party payment systems. In response, Google plans to allow additional billing systems in the country, as does Apple. Both companies have come under fire in recent years for charging fees on purchases on their platforms and for preventing developers from using third-party in-app payment systems.

In fact, Spotify even filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2019. The company took umbrage at the 30% cut Apple takes from subscriptions made through the App Store. And now it’s partnering with Google and its product and engineering teams to create a new payment experience that will give users choices. It plans to roll it out to countries around the world later this year.

Written by Maggie Tillman.