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Apple cracking down on apps offering third-party music downloads, incentivized ad watching & social sharing?

Music-Download-apps-iOS-8Apple has reportedly started cracking down on apps offering the ability to download music from third-party services like YouTube that normally don’t allow users to do so. In addition, a separate report claims that Apple has also started going after apps that incentivize users to either watch ads or share content through social media networks.

The first report comes from MacRumors, which notes the App Store has replaced results for the search query “music download” with an advertisement for iTunes Radio followed by other music services like Spotify (pictured right). At first glance it appears to be Apple simply cleaning up search on the store (I’d expect to get iTunes Radio, Spotify, etc for the search “music download”), but MacRumors also claims that “Apple has asked them to remove audio downloading functionalities from their app, perhaps to prevent potential piracy.” For now the apps still live on the App Store and the change doesn’t appear to have taken place in countries outside iTunes Radio availability. Results in the Canadian App Store continue to show apps for download music illegally from YouTube and other online services. 

Another report has popped up claiming that Apple is also not too happy about apps that are encouraging users to watch ads or share to social networks in exchange for rewards. A report from TechCrunch detailed the change, which also appears to extend to apps promoting apps other than their own through the methods mentioned above.

It’s worth noting that Apple’s App Store guidelines have always had rules against promoting other apps and we’ve seen Apple reject apps in the past that include functionality that might compete with the App Store. There are a lot of grey areas in the App Store guidelines.

We’ll have to wait and see if this is part of a broader change to the App Store in iOS 8, which also introduced app bundles, Editor’s Choice picks, app video previews, and more, and if Apple is truly going to remove these third-party music downloading apps for good.

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Comments

  1. If Apple where so against Apps promoting other Apps, then maybe they should go after the Apps that make them money as well…! Like Candy Crush…!!! I have that and refuse to play it, as much as it is a good game, the constant promotion of there other apps gets on my nerves, and also promotes double standards by apple…!

  2. Do you think apps like Apps Gone Free, that search for promotions and discounts for good apps, will be affected by the new policy?

  3. evilsteven - 10 years ago

    Good! at the least developers need to tone it down a bit. An example: I have a cheap asus tablet and downloaded angry birds the other day, and after every third retry or level progress they make watch an ad which pretty much ruined the game for me especially those level where you might need like 15 -20 tries just finish the level and going for 3 stars? Forget it. Maybe a 2-3 ad limit per hour would be more appealing IDK. I mean seriously it’s like the app content comes second to the ads. If that’s the case then devs should have to name there apps “advertisements with a cool mini game ” and see how they like it when their forced to look at ads in their title

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.