Apple Podcasts, as soon as the dominant platform for podcast listening, is experiencing a big decline in reputation as opponents like YouTube and Spotify achieve floor, in accordance with a current examine by Cumulus Media and Sign Hill Insights.
“Podcast” is a portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcast,” indicating the format’s indebtedness to Apple. Nevertheless, the examine reveals that the podcast panorama has modified dramatically for the reason that firm first popularized the medium in 2005 with the discharge of iTunes 4.9. YouTube is now the most well-liked platform for podcast consumption in the USA, with 31% of respondents reporting it as their main alternative. Spotify follows at 21%, whereas Apple Podcasts has dropped to 3rd place with solely 12% of the market share.
That is in stark distinction to Apple’s place just some years in the past. In July 2019, 29% of weekly podcast listeners primarily used Apple Podcasts. A number of components seem like contributing to Apple Podcasts’ waning reputation. Apple Podcasts did not generate direct income for the corporate till just lately, when in 2021 it launched podcast subscriptions, of which Apple takes a reduce.
Moreover, Apple Podcasts was traditionally not accessible on Android or Home windows gadgets, limiting its attain, though the launch earlier this week of an Apple Podcasts net app could go some option to mitigate this challenge.
The rising reputation of video podcasts has additionally given platforms like YouTube a big benefit, whereas Apple Podcasts has proven no willingness to push video in any respect. Certainly, it is unclear whether or not the corporate is engaged on any main updates or options to compete extra successfully with the extra visible tackle the medium supplied by YouTube and Spotify.
Regardless of the decline, Apple Podcasts nonetheless has the benefit of coming pre-installed on all Apple gadgets, giving it a big potential consumer base. Nevertheless, Apple could have to rethink its technique by emphasizing video podcast content material, including extra monetization choices for podcasters, and attracting new and youthful listeners to the platform.
In iOS 18, Apple’s Podcasts app now reveals chapter segments of a podcast while you scrub by means of a presently enjoying episode, making it simpler to flick thru the audio content material, however there aren’t any main new podcast options within the newest model of Apple’s cellular working system.