From 9to5Mac we get a last minute rumor, from the hand of the editor of Vox Media Peter Kafka. Apparently one of the novelties of tomorrow’s event would be the paid subscription service to podcasts, with a name yet to be defined but which may well be ‘Podcasts +’.
It would be the first attempt to promote an exclusive podcast catalog, no ads, on top of the free podcasts layer that we have so far accessed from the application / service we prefer. It would also be a move by Apple to keep its services division’s revenue growing at a good pace.
One idea, many ways to apply it
If we pay attention to other past leaks, from the launch of iOS 14.5 we would have the option to ‘follow’ a podcast for free or ‘subscribe’ to it for a fee. It is not known if this will apply only to a few podcasts, or if there will be a premium catalog. Maybe Apple will launch some kind of service to help monetize the podcasts added to the catalog, whatever it is.
The only similar thing we have seen are the exclusive podcasts that Spotify released last year, although still free. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see if this rumor is correct and what kind of strategy Apple will follow to attract payments for content that until now has always been free.