Apple to stream its own original podcasts to rival Amazon and Spotify, report

The increase of consumers’ interest in podcasts may have compelled Cupertino giant Apple to not only fund its own original podcasts but also stream them exclusively across its platform.

A new report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple is reaching out to media companies to discuss making certain shows that will be exclusively streamed on Apple Podcasts, the company’s podcast listening app. The people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg that Apple wants to compete in the podcast market with heavy investment to take on Spotify and Amazon, the premier producers of podcasts.

As you may know that Apple has been a neutral player in podcasting, as anyone could upload their podcast’s RSS feed into Apple’s app and distribute it through the platform. Previously, Apple offered curated lists and highlights of noteworthy shows, however, it never funded any of them. But now the tech giant has come up with new ambitions after observing the success of this business.

Though it would be right to say that Apple is predominantly responsible for the initial popularity of the podcast category back in 2005 when it officially added the ability to subscribe to podcasts in the iTunes app but Apple has not changed its strategy around the free audio format in any significant way over the past 14 years.

On the other hand, Apple rival Spotify, has revealed its plans to spend around $500 million on podcast-related acquisitions. Going forward, those networks’ shows will only be available through Spotify. And this could be the reason that Apple is trying to bring down its competitors in every possible way. Apple is allegedly acting as a gatekeeper of the App Store and uses its power to “deliberately disadvantage other app developers,” and is facing a lawsuit for doing so.