Apple To Keep 30% of Magazine Subscription Revenue

Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Guardian reports that Apple has launched a new subscription service for magazines, newspapers and music bought through its App Store, expanding the model developed for Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper and will keep 30% of the revenue from subscriptions if the subscription is purchased through Apple. 'Our philosophy is simple – when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30% share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100% and Apple earns nothing,' says Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, who is presently taking a medical leave of absence from the company. 'All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same – or better – offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one click right in the app.' Apple's control over its App Store payments plan has long been a cause for concern for content companies. Publishers want to have access to subscriber data which can provide lucrative demographics on which to base advertising campaigns and targeted reader offers. Apple says customers purchasing a subscription through its App Store will be given the option of providing the publisher with their names, email addresses and zip codes. The use of such information will be governed by the publisher's privacy policy rather than Apple's."

Re:Goodbye Netflix App?

[bennomatic]

Don't forget, Apple only requires that there be an option there, and that if the subscriber exists when they get the app, Apple doesn't expect a cut. I signed up for Netflix first and then downloaded the app much later. Under the terms as described, Apple won't get a cent of my subscription fee.

Re:But Worse Than Distributing on Android?

[lostmongoose]

Who is this 'everybody' you speak of? Best OS? Subjective. Best hardware? Laughable. It's the same commodity hardware EVERY company uses inside a fancy Apply case.

Re:As you sow, so shall you reap...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Which is why I explicitly drew the contrast between the original "We host, we handle billing, we manage the storefront: 30%", which was skeezy because of its compulsoriness(no sideloading or competing stores allowed); but was a reasonably square deal, particularly for indies, and the "You Must give us 30% of the take from your own storefront if that storefront interacts in any way with one of the apps that we deign to tolerate" model...

The former case is definitely command and control; no alternatives, cryptographically enforced fiat; but it was a deal: Apple provided hosting, billing, and storefront management in exchange for 30%.

The latter case is pure rent-seeking: Even if you operate your own hosting, storefront, billing, etc.(as Amazon, say, does) it will no longer be allowed to let them access a web page and make a purchase. You will be required to offer it as an in-app purchase(30% cut to Apple) for the same price that you would offer it outside. That, is pure rent seeking. Perhaps your ISP should get a percentage of the online shopping you do? Heck, why doesn't Fedex get a cut of the value of the goods they ship?

Re:But Worse Than Distributing on Android?

[jo_ham]

(edit after preview: for some reason the comment system is adding a ton of extra carriage returns - I didn't type it this way)

The case is part of the hardware. I want all of that commodity stuff they put inside (it makes obtaining upgrades and repairing easier, and with the same architecture underneath it makes cross platform software development easier offering a larger selection of software for me to use).

What I *don't* want is the shitty, noisy, tacky plastic cases that come with most PCs. I am under no illusions that the hardware *inside* my iMac is much the same as any other PC, but it's the entire package that I bought, not just the internal hardware.

The price premium (about 20% over an equivalent machine at the time I bought it, over 4 years ago) was well worth it. This is typical across the whole range - the physical hardware is rated very highly across the industry, mainly because the bar is set so low by generic PCs with really crappy cases, both laptop and desktop.

The best OS claim is subjective, but the beauty is you can run your choice of OS on an Apple - it's no irony that one of the best Windows laptops is the Macbook Pro.

The "fancy Apply case" is not just for show. It may not be worth it to you, but that doesn't just make it noise in the signal.

I will also add a major disclaimer, to head off the inevitable "but their hardware is crap" posts: the preceding post does not mean I think the hardware is perfect, or that it doesn't have some design issues that I would personally change, for example, the I/O ports on the iMac are on the back because they're right on the logic board, but it makes then annoying to access if you have a USB stick, so you really need a hub so you don;t have to fumble about back there - adding a port on the side [just under where they put the SD card slot on the new iMacs) would be my number one change. There have also been issues with some design features on other products - the mighty mouse with the tiny trackball, for example, and the issues with certain laptop power cables before the redesign.

Re:Charitable donations? Pay up.

[Sparton]

Parent can't read his own reference.

Apps that are for charitable donations must be free, and cannot use IAP to get donations. Donations can only be collected via an external website or SMS, meaning they never pass through Apple (and thus a 30% cut is never taken).

See also App Store guidelines, section 21.

Re:But Worse Than Distributing on Android?

[jo_ham]

If you think OS X is merely a "skinned" BSD, you are either enormously clueless or deliberately facetious. Possibly just wilfully ignorant.

Hate it, love it or be ambivalent about it, but your statement is simply inaccurate if it was an attempt to hit a barn door with a shotgun from 5 paces it would have missed. Also known as the "Dick Cheney school of shotgun accuracy".

Especially the part about the marketing department putting it together. That's a good one. Anyone ever told you that you should try standup?