Apple is reportedly developing a podcasting subscription service

Subscriptions are here, and they are not going anywhere. Apple isn’t quite a services company in its entirety, but that’s not slowing the company down from launching them anyway. And now we may know that even podcasts will get it on the “fun”.

According to The Information, Apple is currently in talks with production companies in an effort to launch a podcasting “subscription service” at some point in the future. This is quite an interesting approach to podcasts, especially considering many podcasts out there are free to listen to right now.

Per the report:

Apple—long considered the sleeping giant in the podcast space—is waking up. The company, which runs the most widely used podcasting app in the industry, is discussing launching a new subscription service that would charge people to listen to podcasts, according to people familiar with the matter.

Talks between Apple and production companies about the new subscription offering are underway, although it’s unclear when—or whether—Apple will launch the new service. People caution that Apple mulls over many ideas for media services and doesn’t always proceed with them.

The goal here appears to be more money — and not just for Apple. The report indicates that Apple sees a way for a subscription service like this to be a recurring payment to Apple, but also for a way to get podcast creators more money, too.

Apple Podcasts app for macOS Catalina

There are some unknown elements, though. While a new subscription service isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility for Apple, even when it comes to podcasts, it remains to be seen what “charging for individual podcasts” looks like. Or, perhaps even more importantly, what that would cost listeners.

Spotify has made major inroads in the podcasts market, and it’s probably one reason why Apple is starting to put a bigger focus on the medium moving forward. As mentioned above, Apple’s sort of taken a slow approach as a whole, but that may be changing soon.

Apple has been said to be working on original podcasts as well. That rumor cropped up in July of 2019. And, since then, it’s been said that the original podcasts would be a way to boost its original Apple TV+ content.

Would you pay to access the podcasts you listen to on a regular basis?