The Problem with Apple Podcasts Subscriptions

Last week, Apple announced Apple Podcasts Subscriptions:

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is a global marketplace for listeners to discover premium subscriptions offered by their favorite creators, including The Athletic and NPR. The Midnight Miracle, the groundbreaking new original series hosted by Talib Kweli, Yasiin Bey, and Dave Chappelle, will be available next month with a subscription to the Luminary channel on Apple Podcasts.

The news was met with mixed reactions in the podcasting industry and, inevitably, podcasters are scrambling for information on what this means for them.

I've been one of those at the centre of the developments, I've had direct briefings with Apple as CEO of a hosting company and I've been live tweeting a lot if it, too. 

Here's what you need to know and my opinions, too.

What this isn't

Apple Podcasts Connect re-launched last week, too. To say it was plagued with issues is an understatement. This isn't a piece discussing those issues, I did that pretty deeply on Twitter, and so I'd like to focus solely on the subscriptions product here.

I'm also not, for now, touching on the updated Apple Podcasts analytics or Podcasts Connect interface.

What is Apple Podcasts Subscriptions?

A service that allows you to sell paid-for subscriptions to your podcast content.

Similar to Patreon, Glow, Supercast and more this allows you to offer freemium, fully paid for or "extra" content to paying subscribers. You can use this for several things including ad-free versions of your episodes, bonus episodes that only paying subscribers get and so much more.

This is nothing new in the industry and Apple hosts that premium content for you whilst your podcast host such as Captivate continues to host your open, free content.

You may not use Apple's subscription service to make people pay for content that is otherwise free elsewhere.

You can also use Apple Podcasts Connect to create "channels" of content and to group your podcasts together to create, for example, a Star Wars channel that includes your five Star Wars podcasts or a Nerd Podcasts channel that includes your Star Wars, DC Comics, movie & TV and gaming shows.

You can upload artwork to these channels and decide on whether you want to keep them free via RSS and your host, intersperse Apple hosted paid content or even make them entirely paid-for channels.

They can only be consumed within Apple Podcasts, right now on Apple devices but I expect Windows and at least Android versions of Apple Podcasts to debut pretty soon, too, likely before the subscriptions service becomes publicly available for consumption in May.

Pricing

The Apple Podcasters Programme is $19.99 per year (which is a similar model (but lower price)) to the Apple Developer Programme.Apple takes 30% from each paying subscription for the first year and 15% for each year thereafter. This is more expensive than some of the more open eco-systems out there such as Supercast, Glow and Patreon.

Advantages

Apple Podcasts is installed on iOS by default so theoretically this gives you access to anyone using an iOS device.In-built, low-friction transactions with Apple Pay.Management of paid content without running two RSS...