Roger Fingas
Apple on Thursday rechristened iTunes Podcasts under a new label, "Apple Podcasts," likely setting the stage for planned evolutions of the company's podcasting support.
The new term applies to both the iTunes podcast directory and the Podcasts iPhone and iPad app. Accordingly Apple has revised its marketing guidelines, for example producing a new "Listen on Apple Podcasts" badge that can be used on webpages, social networks, and elsewhere. An official Twitter account has been rebranded to @ApplePodcasts.
At February's Code Media conference Apple's head of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, promised that the company was working on new features for podcasts. What those might be is uncertain.
One possibility is that Apple will make it easier for podcasters to make money, perhaps by streamlining ad placements or offering more detailed audience demographics. The company could also conceivably support paid subscriptions, whether for individual shows or by offering a first-party plan with access to "premium" content. Premium podcasts could theoretically become a perk for Apple Music subscribers.
Apple's Podcasts app hasn't been updated since Sept. 13. That release only brought bugfixes, but also made iOS 10 a baseline requirement.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
10 Comments
Why? Almost every podcast in existence including those on (ironically)knockoff devices have the creator saying "iTunes" on almost every podcast.
This is definitely an area that needs improvement since Apple pretty much has a monopoly on this but hasn't done crap to help the platform.
Lucky Apple Music subscribers getting more ways to spend their money.
Oh, now THIS is exciting to me. Maybe or portends an Apple Podcasts application for macOS, thus stripping Podcast functionality out of iTunes. That is what everybody wants right?
I'm also looking forward to some updates to the Podcasts app on iOS. Along with stalwarts like Safari, Mail, and Music, I spend almost all my time in the Podcasts app on my iPhone. Third Party podcast apps have never done anything for me. Lots of people praise overcast, I tried it, do not like it at all. So I'm pretty ginned up about some podcast love from Apple.
I really hope apple doesn't go the way google went with YouTube, where they start restricting and throttling content they don't agree, and promote content they like. That kind of virtue signaling I can't stand.