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The Future of Apple Podcasts

The Future of Apple Podcasts

I read through the “Apple Podcasters Program Agreement” and related documentation so you don’t have to. Here’s a thread of 11 things that caught my eye that I hadn’t seen mentioned anywhere else.

  1. ☁️  For the first time ever, Apple is offering first-party podcast hosting (in addition to third-party hosting providers). You can create a show with subscriber-only benefits available only to listeners on Apple Podcasts.
  2. 🔒  For the Podcasts hosted by Apple (not RSS content), you grant them them right to implement their DRM solution.
  3. 🎧  For the Podcasts hosted by Apple (not RSS content), you can’t upload MP3s, only WAV or FLAC files.
  4. 🤓  Tangent for the pedants: Apple defines a Show as “a series of Podcast episodes” and Podcast as ”a piece of audio or audio/visual content”
  5. 🆓  If you didn’t notice the “Try Luminary Free” button in the press release, you can enable free trials and select a duration from a list of options decided by Apple.
  6. ✏️  By agreeing to the Apple Podcasters Program, you’re also authorizing Apple to create transcripts of your show that may be available in Apple Podcasts to end users.
  7. 🤖  You’re also granting the right for Apple to use your Podcast Content to train machine learning models.
  8. 🚨  This agreement covers everywhere Apple Podcasts may be available, including Android.
  9. 📢  Apple places no restrictions on including advertising in your podcasts and doesn’t want a cut of your ad sales. However, if you were to pitch a subscription tier as ”ad-free“…
  10. 💸  Just like the App Store, Apple owns the customer relationship and can choose to offer a refund if they decide you haven’t fulfilled the benefits offered in your subscription. You have to reimburse the money, but Apple retains their cut, natch.
  11. 📊 If you offer additional features (Could this include interactive features like Q&A, polls, etc?) in platforms other than Apple Podcasts, you agree to make a good faith effort to include those features in Apple Podcasts.

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