Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says Apple has a long way to go before it's an 'open and fair platform' as the two firms war over competition

• Spotify has taken another shot in its long-running fight with Apple over their competing music streaming services.
• Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, has said Apple has a long way to go before it's an "open and fair platform."
• In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, Ek said he nevertheless expects the tech giant to further open up its platform in the future to allow Spotify to compete equally.
• Spotify is currently fighting Apple in the EU over claims that Apple uses its App Store to stifle innovation and limit consumers' options in favor of its own Apple Music.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, reckons Apple has a long way to go before it's an "open and fair platform."

It's the latest shot by Spotify in its ongoing fight with Apple over their competing music streaming services.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, Ek said Apple is "moving in the right direction" in terms of competition but is not yet there.

But Ek added that there had been some progress in getting Apple to open up its services to competitors and that he expected even more progress. He pointed to the fact that Apple device users could finally use Siri to play songs on Spotify, as of September 2019. Previously, Siri would only play songs via Apple Music.

"Long term, we do expect Apple to open up," Ek said. "We're very encouraged about being able to now finally use Siri as a way of building-in voice support and also being available to build products for the Apple TV and Apple Watch, something that we haven't been able to do until very recently."

Spotify filed an EU antitrust complaint against Apple in March 2019, complaining that Apple misused its platforms to favor its own services above rivals. There's the Siri example, and Spotify also complained that it has to pay a 30% tax on its streaming subscriptions bought through the App Store. Apple Music, Spotify said, doesn't have the same tax and could undercut the competition.

In the Bloomberg interview, Ek also said he's "not interested" in selling Spotify to Netflix, with rumors of a proposed merger between the two streaming having existed for years.