Since June 2021, the number of people using Apple’s premium podcast subscription service has increased by more than 300 percent. An Apple representative who talked to Digiday about a brand-new Dateline subscription podcast option revealed the statistic today.
More than a year after subscriptions initially arrived, more over 25% of the top 100 programmes from the “Top Shows” ranking had a subscription option. In April 2021, Apple released Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, a tool that enables users to gain advantages including ad-free listening, access to more material, and early or exclusive access to new podcast series.
Similar to how App Store subscriptions operate, Apple receives a 15 to 30 percent share of the money from podcast subscriptions. For the first year that a user is a subscriber, Apple keeps a 30 percent cut; for each additional year, it keeps a 15 percent cut.
Dateline is the most recent subscription addition to Apple, offering ad-free listening across nine podcasts and programmes, one-week episode early access, and monthly bonus episodes. Podcasters have the option to choose their own membership pricing conditions, with the cost of the subscription being $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.