Apple has announced a podcasts-specific feature called Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery. The feature will allow podcast creators to upload, manage and distribute their podcasts on Apple Podcast through third-party hosting providers.
Apple Podcasts delegated delivery
The feature will launch later this fall. When it is available, creators can authorize third-party podcast hosting providers to deliver their free and premium episodes on Apple Podcasts. After giving the authorization, creators can use the dashboard of their hosting providers to publish new episodes to Apple Podcasts.
They can also schedule exclusive, early access, bonus, and ad-free release using WAV, FLAC, and MP3 files. If you are wondering whether your current hosting provider will support the Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery, Apple has released a list of hosting providers supporting the feature on launch. The list is as below.
- Acast
- ART 19
- Blurbrry
- Buzzsprout
- Libsyn
- Omny Studio
- RSS.com
The list of supported hosting providers is small as of now, but Apple has confirmed it will add support for more providers soon. Although Apple has announced the new podcast delivery system, the podcasters offering a subscription to their podcasts will still have to pay $19.99 for the Apple Podcasters Program.
Apple’s biggest competitor in the podcast industry is none other than Spotify. The Swedish music streaming company has its podcast delivery service, Anchor. When asked if Apple aims to compete with Spotify’s Anchor, Apple Podcasts spokesperson Zach Kahn said the Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery is not intended to compete with Anchor.
He added that the intent is to create an open podcasting ecosystem so that Anchor could become a Delegated Delivery Partner. Besides launching Delegated Delivery, Apple has also launched a new feature for Apple Podcast.
The company is rolling out a new update to the Apple Podcasts app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Users can specify how many podcast episodes they want to download for offline listening. The available options will be the last five episodes or published during the previous 14 days.
What are your thoughts on these new Apple podcast features? One of them is aimed at creators and the other at listeners. Let us know what you think.
