Apple said Tuesday it’s rolling out a Podcasts update for creators, offering follower metrics and other features. That should help those who produce podcasts to monetize them, in part by tracking their audience through a variety of metrics.
Apple is making a number of nice design improvements to its Podcasts app in iOS 15.4. The biggest is the ability to filter podcast episodes by season.
That particular change undoubtedly will prove handy as users navigate their way through long-running shows. But it’s not the only new option for podcast filtering in Apple’s latest beta.
Apple on Tuesday published its showcase of this year’s best and most popular podcasts in the United States. It also called 2021 a year for “shows that moved us in ways unlike ever before.”
A Slight Change of Plans with Maya Shankar has been named the Best Show of the Year, while Anything for Selena with Maria Garcia is Apple’s Newcomer of the Year.
Earlier this week, Apple opened up its Podcasts service to subscriptions, calling it a “global marketplace for listeners to discover premium subscriptions offered by their favorite creators.” Now, The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify is set to jump in with a rival premium podcast feature.
However, unlike Apple, Spotify supposedly won’t take a cut of podcasters’ subscription revenues.
Apple could debut a premium podcast service at Tuesday’s “Spring Loaded” event, according to Recode reporter Peter Kafka.
“Pretty sure Apple is prepping its own podcast plan – a paid subscription service – on Tuesday,” Kafka tweeted Sunday.
No additional details are known about the possible podcast initiative, which presumably would join paid subscription services Apple News+, Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple Fitness+. The possibility of a paid podcasting service from Apple was rumored earlier this year.
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Apple TV+ is launching a podcast dedicated to For All Mankind, the streaming service’s alternate-history show about the space race. The podcast will serve as a platform for real astronauts and scientists to discuss space travel with the series’ cast and creators.
The first episode of the podcast debuts Friday, the same day season two of the sci-fi series arrives.
Apple is reportedly considering a for-pay podcast subscription service. It would join other Apple services offering premium content, like Apple TV+ and News+.
The news sent shares of rival Spotify down over 7% on Friday.
With the year winding down, Apple picked its favorite podcasts, books and audiobooks of 2020. The offerings “kept us entertained, made us think, provided a much-needed escape, or filled our hearts up,“ noted Apple.
All the recommendations are, of course, available through Apple Podcasts or Apple Books.
Apple quietly snapped up podcasting app Scout FM, which tries to make podcasting sound more like tuning into radio stations, for an undisclosed amount earlier this year.
Scout FM worked by letting users choose particular topics, then automatically customizing a radio station-like podcasting listening experience for them. It was intended as a way to cut through the findability clutter of hundreds of thousands of available podcasts.
