Quick rant about Apple Podcasts

[JSD]

What Apple Podcasts has done in the "host app" wars is really dropping the ball. Apple literally invented Podcasting, which used to be their world, exclusively tied to the Apple brand. But, for some reason, they never invested in their app or allocated funds towards building an exclusive roster. In the early days, Apple had EVERYONE, including Bill Simmons, Joe Rogan, and all the other heavy hitters of that time. Spotify noticed Apple's negligence regarding the booming world of podcasts. First, they got Rogan and paid him over $200 million for exclusive content. Then, they purchased Bill Simmons' entire Podcast Network, the Ringer. Just about 40 Podcasts. For now, The Ringer is still available on Apple and hasn't become exclusive. But what will Apple do when these podcasts eventually leave their platform?

I believe Apple made a big mistake by not investing in their creators early on, and Tim Cook should bear some responsibility for this oversight. Personally, I never had the desire to switch to Spotify, especially considering that I already use Apple products exclusively. But I was compelled to do so due to the availability of The Ringer and, to some extent, the presence of Rogan. The Ringer was still accessible on Apple, but navigating through it was annoying. Spotify gives time stamps for each segment of The Ringer Podcasts, allowing me to skip directly to the specific interview or segment I want to hear. Despite this nice little touch, I’m still not a huge fan of Spotify, because now they’re hammering me with ads, my penalty for not switching to Spotify Music and staying with Apple Music.

I wish Apple had locked up individuals like Simmons and Rogan with relatively inexpensive contracts early on and made substantial investments in them. Apple should have allowed Android users to download their app. They missed out on this opportunity, and now Spotify, and Amazon, with numerous advertisements, are going to be dominating the market. These competitors are significantly encroaching on Apple Music too, as many individuals are switching to Spotify Music to avoid the advertisements in their podcasts.

This is how kingdoms fall

Ok end rant

[Kernewek]

It's interesting, despite being enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem, I've never used Apple Music (and by extension Apple Podcasts) except by mistake when I open a file on my laptop. The UI just isn't there for me (and I still use Winamp on my Windows PC because I'm a curmudgeon), whereas Spotify has clearly spent a lot of money making the program easy to use.

Having said that, though, Spotify's expansion into podcasts came after they'd established themselves as, essentially, the world's best music library - there's loads of music missing from it, of course, but eight times out of ten the music is there - and it's pretty good about tracking progress on all of my devices, including, cross-OS, so I can listen to something on my Windows device, grab my iPhone to run some errands and pick up right where I left off.

Are you paying for Spotify premium? Not sure if it varies by region or how each podcaster has it set up, but I don't get adverts in my podcasts.


Maybe we should have a general "what podcasts are you listening to"? Thread? Bet that would be pretty interesting.

[JSD]

It's interesting, despite being enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem, I've never used Apple Music (and by extension Apple Podcasts) except by mistake when I open a file on my laptop. The UI just isn't there for me (and I still use Winamp on my Windows PC because I'm a curmudgeon), whereas Spotify has clearly spent a lot of money making the program easy to use.

Having said that, though, Spotify's expansion into podcasts came after they'd established themselves as, essentially, the world's best music library - there's loads of music missing from it, of course, but eight times out of ten the music is there - and it's pretty good about tracking progress on all of my devices, including, cross-OS, so I can listen to something on my Windows device, grab my iPhone to run some errands and pick up right where I left off.

Are you paying for Spotify premium? Not sure if it varies by region or how each podcaster has it set up, but I don't get adverts in my podcasts.


Maybe we should have a general "what podcasts are you listening to"? Thread? Bet that would be pretty interesting.

I haven't paid for it yet because I already have Apple Music through other things I buy from Apple, like cloud storage and such. But now I'm thinking about switching, which is frustrating because all my music is on Apple and I'll have to start over completely with Spotify. This frustration is why I'm posting this rant in the first place. And really, how did Apple miss what's happening with Podcasts? They should have been fully invested in it 15 years ago.