14 DAY TRIAL // Jim Barcus, the president of a company that makes smartphone apps for commercial radio stations says Apple is rejecting all single-station apps starting November 10th. The company is known to dismiss apps that offer limited functionality, or that replicate the features of other titles in the App Store.
Apple (supposedly starting now) wants radio apps that only feature "hundreds" of stations, as single-station apps are pretty much the same thing as "fart apps". They are considered a form of "spamming" the App Store, Steve Jobs allegedly told Barcus.
Speaking to Radio Magazine, Barcus shares his sad story revealing that “On Nov. 10, 2010, we had 10 radio station apps rejected by Apple because Apple says ‘single station app are the same as a FART app and represent spam in the iTunes store’ and Apple ‘will no longer approve any more radio station apps unless there are hundreds of stations on the same app.”
The rather saddening situation Barcus is in currently is also described on his djbapps.com website, where he claims to have “talked to many Apple reps about this, but they appear to have a script that they all read from saying that a single-station app is not an enriching end-user experience.”
“We disagree, since our single-station apps have had more than 44,000 downloads in the past month,” Barcus says.
He explains Apple’s rejection saying the company has recently implemented a rule that has developers ‘spamming’ the App Store with many versions of similar apps removed from the iOS Developer Program.
“Furthermore in the same document, they compare these apps that spam the App Store to Fart apps,” Barcus outlines, arguing that “radio stations do not want to be on the same app with all the rest of the stations in the same town; and Apple’s answer was ‘too bad’.”
Barcus reveals that he wrote an email to Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, to ask about the matter.
According to his post, Jobs’ response was: “Sorry, we’ve made our decision.”
The head of djbapps.com believes Steve Jobs doesn’t care much about radio stations.
“Everybody at Apple has the same stance. No more radio station apps, though every pizza joint can have its own app,” a visibly frustrated Barcus notes.
He encourages broadcast professionals to complain about this issue, hoping that Apple becomes aware “that stations are in fierce competition with each other and that listener loyalty makes the listener want to only listen to their favorite radio station, they may change this rule.”