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An X post from Elon Musk tells creators he'd like to give them more money, but Apple's 30% App Store commission prevents that. He hopes a conversation with CEO Tim Cook will change things.
Apple's controversial 30% take makes the headlines regularly, and today Elon Musk wants the spotlight. He hopes to talk with Apple CEO Tim Cook about adjusting how the company calculates its 30% commission, specifically for X creators.
According to the post, Musk says X will not take a percentage of creators' income until their payout exceeds $100k. After that, the company would take 10%.
The original policy of one free year is still in place. So, the $100k rule goes into effect after that.
There's just one pesky problem — Apple. Any in-app purchase made on the platform will take up to 30% commission for Apple. Musk would like Apple to change that to taking the commission as usual, but only on money paid to X, not the artist.
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People from every corner of the world post incredible content on , but often live in tough circumstances, where even a few hundred
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 2, 2023
Since X is a company that earns more than $1 million per year, its default commission to Apple is 30% per transaction. However, since super follows are subscriptions, anyone who holds onto a subscription for more than a year will only have a 15% commission on that specific payment.
Musk isn't the first and won't be the last to want Apple to rethink its commission system. Some would prefer no commission or the ability to bypass Apple's payment platform entirely.
Try as he might, Musk likely won't be the one to bend Apple's will on this. Epic Games famously took Apple to court and lost on this exact issue. The only way to avoid Apple's commission is to prevent iPhone app users from subscribing in the app and instead only allow subscriptions to take place on the web.
