Many tech companies are known to troll rival brands. In fact, healthy ‘trolling’ has been part of the corporate world for years now. However, Apple is not known to do so. But in a rare event, Apple is reportedly subtly trolling its rival music streaming platform Spotify. The Cupertino based company is taking a dig at Spotify after the latter fell out with popular musician Neil Young. As songs of the 76-year-old rock star are not available on Spotify anymore, Apple Music is said to be courting Young and his fans with notifications. The streaming service is also calling itself “The home of Neil Young.” The platform is also reportedly showing albums and songs of the artist in the front on its ‘Browse’ section.
For those who do not know, the artist pulled his music from Spotify after disagreement with the platform. The row occurred when the Canadian singer demanded to remove content of comedian-turned-podcaster Joe Rogan from Spotify. Young accuses Rogan of spreading fake news and Covid misinformation. The allegations were against one of the most popular Spotify podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Young even expressed his concerns in a now-deleted open letter on his website.
Apple-Spotify rivalry is not new. In 2020, Spotify sided with Fortnite developer Epic Games in its fight with Apple. “We applaud Epic Games’ decision to take a stand against Apple and shed further light on Apple’s abuse of its dominant position. Apple’s unfair practices have disadvantaged competitors and deprived consumers for far too long. The stakes for consumers and app developers large and small couldn’t be higher and ensuring that the iOS platform operates competitively and fairly is an urgent task with far-reaching implications,” Spotify had then said in a statement applauding Epic Games for taking on Apple.
