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It shouldn’t surprise anyone who didn’t already know that Apple rules over the iPhone/iPod touch App Store with an iron fist.  There have been several stories of Apps that got rejected for ridiculous reasons, or even some that were approved then taken down, like the Shaken Baby app.  However, not all of these apps have had Trent Reznor and an army of Nine Inch Nails fans to complain about it.

Over the weekend Reznor posted his thoughts on the app rejection on the nin.com forums.  He pasted in the first post the email from Apple that claimed the app was rejected because of the objectionable material of “The Downward Spiral.”  The Downward Spiral is actually nowhere to be found on the app, and the update was meant to fix a bug that made it not work for international users.  The only place The Downward Spiral is available through the app is through a streaming podcast that the app accesses.  The song and album are actually available on the iTunes Music Store, although it carries and explicit tag.

Trent Reznor used the situation to rant about his issues with censorship in places like the App Store and Wal-Mart.  His argument against Apple [Editor’s note: the content of the quote has been altered to remove swear words]:

You can buy The Downward F**king Spiral on iTunes, but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says F**K or C**T? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about f**king hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. . . .

There’s really no better way to say it.  Later in the discussion Reznor explains his love for Apple products, and explains why NIN chose to release and app on the iPhone and not, say, Android.  Part of his reasoning is his well known Apple loyalty, though something has to be said as well for the popularity and ease of use for new users of the iPhone.

Perhaps with enough people complaining about it, Apple will one day change its App Store policies, or at least make them more clear.  If nothing else, it needs to find a way for adults to find apps that they may want that aren’t PG or PG-13.  Imagine how much an App that simply streamed South Park episodes from South Park Studios, but it can’t because South park is probably “objectionable material.”  Maybe something like an explicit tag?  It apparently works on the iTunes Music Store.  Some of us would like to see actual mature apps on the platform, and not just what Apple says we can handle.

Read [NIN Forums]