The podcasting industry as we know it is about to change. Plans by Apple to launch a subscription service for podcasts, as The Information reported today, portends a shift to a much more balkanized podcasting world. Instead of shows being broadly available for free on a variety of outlets, in the future podcasts will be attached exclusively for a price to specific outlets.
It’s not only Apple driving this, of course. Such a world is the logical conclusion to the consolidation that has been underway in the past few years, as Spotify, Sirius XM and Amazon have each swallowed up podcasting production firms. So far most podcasts have remained freely available across outlets, with some notable exceptions. But that seems destined to change.
