GeneralBrock

So, providing a marketplace and utilizing the technology, payment systems, etc have no value and Apple should just provide this for free? Wow, Spotify has a skewed sense of how business works in North America.

If you take your product direct to consumer you can eliminate costs and provide your product or service for less to your customer. Introduce a middle man/ reseller you incur greater cost yet gain access to that reseller's customer network. Rather than complain they should dust off an economics textbook.