For years, a unfastened coalition of firms, together with Spotify and Epic Games, has been railing in opposition to the so-called app retailer tax — taking Apple and Google to court docket and spurring regulators to analyze their up-to-30 p.c minimize of builders’ app income. They argue they’re locked into grossly overpriced billing, internet hosting, and curation companies that typically damage greater than they assist.

So it was a shock when, on Wednesday, Google revealed a pilot program with Spotify that can let some builders bypass Google Play billing on Android — letting Spotify and probably others use their very own fee platforms as an alternative. But when you suppose which means Google’s going to surrender its piece of the motion, suppose once more. Reading between the strains, it’s clear that Google remains to be getting its money.

Here’s how Bloomberg put it:

If a person chooses to pay Spotify straight as an alternative of utilizing Google’s billing system, Spotify received’t have to present Google its complete 15% payment, in response to an individual acquainted with the matter. A Google spokesperson stated the corporate hasn’t sorted out the monetary phrases but.

And here’s TechCrunch:

Reached for remark, Spotify declined to say what kind of fee it might be paying Google as part of this pilot check, noting that the settlement was confidential. But an organization spokesperson instructed that the business phrases met Spotify’s “standards of fairness.”

Google additionally declined to element the fee construction concerned. However, it famous that person alternative billing, similar to is the case in South Korea, will nonetheless contain a service payment no matter which billing system the person chooses.

There will nonetheless be a payment. There will nonetheless be a fee. As Google’s “first partner,” Spotify simply obtained to barter a brand new deal for itself. We simply don’t understand how a lot it’s — solely that Spotify appears happier at the moment than when Google introduced that “on-demand music streaming services” shall be “eligible” for a payment “as low as 10%.”

And we all know that Google and Spotify are being cagey about it. Google spokesperson Dan Jackson wouldn’t affirm Google’s feedback to Bloomberg and TechCrunch on the report. Spotify spokesperson Taylor Griffin wouldn’t go on the report both.

I believe a number of app builders are questioning why Google is launching a restricted pilot program in any respect, letting large firms like Spotify get dibs and get to barter favorable backroom offers. Why not open up the Play Store to various fee processors, interval, and let the market set the value?

Sweetheart offers have been already a factor on these app shops. The Epic v. Apple trial revealed, for example, that Netflix had a “unique arrangement” to share solely 15 p.c of its income on iOS again when the going charge was 30. Microsoft gave loads of its top app partners a “store policy exception” that allow them pay in a different way, too. That’s not sending the message that indie builders really get a good shake in these marketplaces.

I’m additionally curious what it means for that unfastened coalition of firms preventing the app retailer tax — organized because the Coalition for App Fairness — now that distinguished member Spotify has negotiated this deal for itself. The CAF has been fully silent on Google and Spotify’s announcement in public and replied to us at the moment with a generic assertion about how “CAF is committed to fighting for systemic change.” (It additionally reportedly lost its executive director earlier this week.) Epic Games, one other founding member of the CAF, would additionally not communicate to us on the report.

The CAF has argued that a 5 p.c payment is the “upper limit for fees charged by other payment providers for purchases” — so if builders wind up paying greater than 5 p.c to make use of their very own fee processors through Google, it might be laborious for it to name Google’s transfer a victory.

But if it’s underneath 5 p.c and obtainable to all, it may very well be a special story. We’ll have to attend and see.