Explore the transformative impact of tech giants like Apple and Spotify on the podcasting landscape. Uncover how their innovative strategies and technologies are reshaping the way we create, distribute, and consume podcasts.
Apple is creating the technical infrastructure for paid subscriptions through its Apple Podcasts service
Creators will now have the option to require a payment for audiences to access their content on Apple’s platform, with Apple taking a 30 per cent cut of the revenue
- In 2005, Apple brought podcasting into the mainstream by making the medium visible and instantly available.
- Since then, Apple has by far the largest podcast directory, serving as a gateway to tens of thousands of new podcasts and an archive of the medium’s history by storing the RSS feeds of shows no longer releasing new episodes.
Apple has entered the content business
For the first time, paid subscriptions will exist on its platform.
- Apple will allow creators to place their podcasts behind a paywall via the Apple Podcasts app, allowing podcasters to decide whether their content is exclusive to Apple, or whether it will appear outside of the app.
Apple and Spotify have given us a glimpse of a podcasting future where the walled gardens of platform-exclusive, premium content become the norm
This presents a potential long-term threat to the free, open architecture of podcasting, though projects like The Podcast Index are aiming to preserve the medium as platform-agnostic
SPOTIFY GETS Exclusive
Back in 2005, Apple’s iTunes store operated as a convenient online storefront for free content that passed through audio files.
Privacy concerns
Jealously guarding its status as an industry privacy leader, Apple didn’t even allow podcast creators to access listening data like audience demographics or how long users listened to an episode until 2017
- This was in response to sophisticated audience dashboards being launched by competitors like Spotify and Google
