At its Spring Loaded special event in April, Apple announced that it was set to begin offering Apple Podcast Subscriptions.
Rather than being a monthly subscription service organized by Apple, like Apple Arcade or Apple Fitness+, the idea was to allow creators to set subscription costs for their podcasts, which Apple would then take a cut of in the form of commission. At the event, Apple execs noted that Apple Podcasts Subscriptions would be available in 170 countries starting “next month,” meaning May.
However, with May rapidly winding down, Apple has sent out an email to podcast creators saying that the rollout of Apple Podcast Subscriptions has been pushed back to June. It failed to provide more details on why this was the case, but said that it is working hard to offer the “best experience for creators and listeners.” The email was reported by Apple Insider.
No Precise Launch Date Announced
The email to podcasts creators does not give a precise date for the launch. Technically, “June” could mean just a couple of days’ time. This would seem unlikely, though, as Apple would probably not highlight that one of its new product offerings is running late if it was only going to launch a day or two after when Apple announced that it would.
With the last three days of May being a weekend and Memorial Day public holiday, it seems unlikely that too much work will be done at Apple until June. In other words, it’s probable that this delay will be at least a week or more.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2021) kicks off June 7 and runs through June 11. It’s possible that Apple uses the event to share some more details of the Apple Podcast Subscriptions service.
A New Source of Revenue for Apple
The feature promises to be a new source of revenue for Apple. At the Spring Loaded event, Apple suggested that subscriptions are likely to start from around $0.49/month. However, the featured podcasts that are shown in Apple’s promotional images depict higher price tags of $2.99/month and $5.99/month.
As noted, Apple will take a 30% cut of revenue from creators for the first year. This drops to 15% in the second year. Apple will additionally charge podcast creators a payment of $19.99 per year simply to use the subscription feature.
Apple is currently being challenged by various developers in several countries regarding the antitrust legality of charging a similar cut of app-generated revenue, via the App Store.