Does Apple Charge to Upload a Podcast

Analogy past William Joel / The Verge

Can Apple become you to pay for podcasts?

The earth's virtually popular podcast app gets subscriptions

By April 22, 2021, 2:32pm EDT

Beth Silvers credits paid subscriptions for making podcasting her full-time job. She and Sarah Stewart Holland host Pantsuit Politics, a show that tries to turn political punditry into "grace-filled conversations." The two of them launched the bear witness in 2015 and and then started experimenting with subscriptions two years later, start on their own website in the form of monthly contributions, and then, not long after, on Patreon.

Three years later, they at present have over 4,000 monthly subscribers who pay anywhere from $5 to $100 per month, use a full-time listener-turned-employee, and fully focus their time on the show. Their revenue is now every bit fabricated upward of advertising and memberships. "It was still a big risk [when we switched to Patreon]," Silvers says. "We weren't quite at a sustainable indicate. We thought to get to sustainability, we've got to invest more time here."

At present, the women are trying something new: Apple Podcasts subscriptions. They're amidst the first creators who've signed up to attempt the service, which allows podcasters to offer paid subscriptions from within the Podcasts app.

The most popular podcasting app putting its weight behind subscriptions could be monumental. Apple has the chance to popularize paid subscriptions by making it easy to listen and subscribe in 1 place, and it could influence the industry to shift slightly away from its dependence on advertising at the same fourth dimension. Plus, unlike other solutions, Apple will also allow listeners to try these subscriptions for gratuitous for a limited corporeality of time, giving people a chance to preview what they're paying to access. Apple tree'south not precious near the content podcasters offer there, either. Shows and bonus content don't take to be sectional to the platform, and they can mix costless and paid content.

Apple Podcasts' subscription product will let creators determine how much to charge for content.

Image: Apple tree

"When Apple does [subscriptions], it's like flicking a switch," says Jacob Weisberg, CEO of podcasting network Pushkin Industries, which author Malcolm Gladwell co-founded.

Even David Stern, the CEO of Supporting Cast, which runs a competing podcast subscription platform, sees Apple's entrance as a turning signal for the industry. "The number i claiming we have in getting podcasters to consider working with Supporting Cast is simply that people aren't used to the idea of a paid podcast," he said in a weblog post before this week. "Apple's button into premium content will assist the industry empathize how much revenue they are leaving on the table past not giving their listeners something to pay for."

The potential upside for podcasters is huge. Apple Podcasts is the biggest podcast listening platform in the world, and listeners won't have to leave the app to sign upwardly.

But the service does come up with trade-offs. Most crucially, podcasters have to pay a flat fee of $19.99 per twelvemonth to even offer subscriptions, and they then give Apple a 30 per centum cut of acquirement for each subscriber'south first twelvemonth and xv percent for the years following. Patreon, in contrast, takes up to 12 percentage of creators' revenue. Apple Podcasts is also only available on iOS devices, which about of the world doesn't apply.

Those may be tough terms for podcasters, merely it might pay off. Apple tree Podcasts' marketing potential is massive, and information technology should make it far easier for hosts to promote a subscription. Right now, podcasters who offering exclusive or bonus content often practice so through individual RSS feeds, which require listeners to input a link into the listening app of their choice — a feature that some apps, like Spotify, don't support. Podcasters might have to walk them through this procedure, and if someone cancels their membership, it generally falls on the podcaster to make sure their RSS link admission is revoked. Getting listeners to pay besides normally involves disarming them to sign up for another platform, like Patreon, a far bigger hurdle than borer a button inside the app they're already using.

This is why the Pantsuit Politics squad signed up for Apple Podcasts' subscriptions, especially because a bulk of their listeners are on Apple Podcasts.

"We like giving our listeners options, and we experience like there are people who probably would like our bonus content who just don't desire to deal with the hassle of figuring Patreon out," Silvers says.

Merely they're going to take to go creative with how they annunciate their perks. Patreon is more fully congenital out to back up creators who want various benefits. In Pantsuit Politics' case, subscribers not only receive bonus content, just also a community on Patreon itself where they tin can chat near episodes and participate in a book club where Silvers and Stewart Holland ship the books they program to talk over. Silvers and Stewart Holland also receive their listeners' personal information, like addresses, which help them decide where to tour. Their listeners' emails, which they as well receive, allow them to send FYIs near ticket sales or other content, like YouTube Lives.

"Nosotros all just dearest convenience, like we love our stuff to only be in 1 place," says Jessica Cordova Kramer, the CEO of Lemonada Media, which plans to use Apple Podcasts' subscriptions in addition to existing subscription services. "And yes, at that place'due south an extra hoop to jump through if you're using something that'southward outside the listening ecosystem."

Apple doesn't yet seem interested in edifice the social attribute of podcasting communities, and then if podcasters want to advertise their Discord or Patreon, they'll have to shout out those perks and ask listeners to contact them for admission — another hurdle. Apple tree also won't give podcasters their listeners' emails, names, phone numbers, addresses, or any personal data, so Apple ends up mediating all interactions and keeping the data. Apple does say it'll give podcasters aggregated, anonymized analytics almost their listeners, similar where they're based, but these tools likely won't wholly replace the benefits of having subscribers' emails or names.

"Having the Discord in our community has been then rewarding to usa, the hosts, and the people that take joined it. Without beingness able to foster that ... is about like a blocker for the Apple subscriptions," says Matt Kolowski, a host of a evidence most movies chosen 70mm, which has effectually 140 subscribers on Patreon. "I'd really love for them to realize that a sense of community is such a huge part of creating a fun podcast experience."

In a annotate to The Verge almost Apple's push into subscriptions, Patreon's master acquirement officeholder Kerri Pollard specifically chosen out its community features every bit a selling betoken. "We know creators see the value in our offering that serves them and their communities first, and volition keep to utilize Patreon," she says.

Community has become then important, in fact, that even Facebook justified its push into audio and podcasting this calendar week because of it. The company says 170 meg people on Facebook are connected to a folio that's linked to a specific podcast, and more than than 35 million people are members of fan groups around podcasts.

Another cistron for podcasters to consider: more platforms means more administrative work. RSS promised one feed for all the apps, but the ecosystem of subscriptions isn't shaping up that way. Kolowski and his co-hosts upload bonus and early on access content to Patreon; their usual shows to their hosting provider, Anchor; and if they participate in Apple Podcasts, they'd need to separately mail uploads there, too. If Spotify gets into the subscription game, they might have to manually upload content in that location as well — although being on Anchor, a Spotify company, might pay off in that mode.

"Ultimately, I don't actually desire like four places to upload a podcast to because selfishly, I don't want to have that kind of legwork," Kolowski says, adding that near of his evidence's listeners are on Pocket Casts, not Apple Podcasts.

Just for larger networks, Apple Podcasts' subscriptions might be the correct fit at the right time. Pushkin Industries is launching its first subscription program, PushNik, through Apple Podcasts, with plans to eventually brand the bonus and exclusive content available on other apps. Pushkin CEO Weisberg helped Slate launch Slate Plus, a subscription program that includes ad-complimentary podcasts, years ago, and says, at the fourth dimension, there were no easy solutions for publishers.

"It was so clunky to get the private RSS feed into whatever role player you lot employ," he says. "It's just a lot of steps, and to me information technology was really difficult, and the thing that I was always banging on nearly at Slate was we've got to reduce the number of clicks to get the bonus content for subscribers."

Apple'south subscriptions solve that. Of course, in the years since Slate launched Slate Plus, Patreon has sprung up, as take other companies like Supporting Cast, which Slate launched to help other podcasters set up memberships. They don't solve the one-click problem, but they at least provide the infrastructure and tech support to go along a subscription business concern running.

For these networks, a 30 percent initial cut that eventually goes to 15 percent might exist worth it. Actress coin is actress money. Simply for the smaller podcasters who've focused on customs and creating a fan base of engaged listeners, Apple tree might not provide enough — especially if a prove reaches a global audience that'south more Android-based than iOS. Only it seems well-nigh certain that with Apple tree supporting and caring about subscriptions, more people than ever before will be paying for shows.

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Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/22/22396042/apple-podcast-subscriptions-launch-price

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