Apple hasn’t tried to make a business out of podcasting until now. Will you pay?
Apple more or less invented podcasting. Now it’s finally going to try to make money from it: The company plans to start selling subscriptions to podcasts and keeping a slice of each transaction for itself. Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly mentioned plans to roll out a subscription feature during the company’s keynote event Tuesday, without offering more details. But a person familiar with Apple’s plans has spelled it out to Recode: Apple’s announcement comes as big tech companies are showing renewed interest in podcasting and audio in general. On Monday, Facebook announced plans to create its own version of Clubhouse, the social chat app, as well as plans to distribute podcasts itself. Spotify has invested $1 billion in podcast shows and tech. Twitter already has its own Clubhouse clone, and, strangely, CEO Jack Dorsey has shelled out $300 million to buy the failed music streaming service Tidal for Square, the payments company he also runs.
