Apple is charging its creators $19.99 per year to participate in the program, which will in turn allow creators to set their own monthly subscription rates. Apple Podcasts SubscriptionsĪpple’s new subscription offering, entitled Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, will enable podcasters to provide exclusive content to paid subscribers. Let’s break down the similarities and differences between Apple’s and Spotify’s new offerings.

However, these two services’ podcast subscription plans look a bit different from one another. Up until now, most independent content creators turned to membership platforms such as Patreon to distribute paywalled content to their subscribers.īut with the arrival of Apple’s and Spotify’s podcast subscription plans, the ability to subscribe to a particular show is now streamlined through the major platforms where the majority of listeners are already tuning in to stream their favorite shows: Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Many see this as an exciting development in the world of podcasting because it means that independent creators will be able to enhance the quality of their shows and produce more content for their audiences. This means that podcasters can offer their ardent listenership a new way to directly support them and access additional content. The aim of these new podcast subscription plans isn’t to lock shows that were once free behind a paywall, but rather to give podcasts a new revenue stream outside of traditional podcast advertising. In April of 2021, both Spotify and Apple made it known that they were going to begin allowing creators to publish premium content that would be exclusively available to paid subscribers. These subscription plans are definitely worth paying attention to, because they’ve introduced a whole new funding model into the industry and could have a lasting impact on the entire podcasting ecosystem going forward.

If you’re somebody who creates or listens to podcasts, then you may have noticed a handful of big announcements about podcast subscription plans recently.

Spotify plans for podcast subscriptions