BERLIN – Simfy, the German music streaming company based in Cologne, is claiming Apple has delayed approval of its iPad app for over three months and has filed a formal complaint at the German cartel-office in Bonn. Simfy says Apple is misusing its market position.
“We have not been given any explanation for the delay in granting us the approval,” Gerrit Schumann, CEO of simfy, told Billboard.biz. “It is impossible that Apple can act in such a market dominating way. The app store is such an important marketplace for us to reach our over one million customers. We all are fans of Apple and therefore cannot understand why we are being blocked on purpose for months.”
Christoph Lange, chief marketing officer at simfy, says that they haven’t heard anything from Apple, “not even whether they have received our application. Normally it takes only two to three weeks to have an app at Apple, sometimes even only two to three days.”
Martin Kuderna, manager of the Apple’s German PR company said Apple would not comment on the simfy case.
Since its start in May 2010, simfy, with its one million registered users, has become Germany’s largest music portal and the leading music platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 11 million titles.
In other simfy news, the digital music company just released the results of a study on current trends in German music consumption.
The role of the computer in music consumption, as one might expect, is becoming more and more important. Nearly three quarters (73%) of those surveyed said they listen to music on the laptop or PC. The pros of using the computer as a playback device include fast access to music, easy management and the option of creating individual playlists without having to change CDs.
51% of the people surveyed consider the constant availability of music via the Internet to be a decisive factor. The main reason for the increase in digital music consumption is that the computer is often already being used.
Computers / laptops, however, are the second most frequently used devices for listening to music (22%) behind the car radio, which is used more often to listen to music (26%).
41% of those surveyed listen to music via cell or smartphone. But for now, the medium is considered secondary, as only 8% use a cell or smartphone as a primary music-listening device for listening to music.
The changing trend in music consumption found an increasing willingness to do without physical media like CDs and records. 40% of men would consider not buying physical music products while 20% said they were undecided. Digital music is particularly favored by younger listeners. Half of the respondents under the age of 20 can imagine only storing music electronically in the future.
The data on music consumption and attitudes towards music streaming and online music portals was identified in a forsa.omninet study carried out from March 4-15, 2011.