#6 VC Firm Declares Podcasting a Hobby [June 2nd 2021]

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Apple Podcasters Will Need To Wait

• The planned end of May debut of Apple Podcast Subscriptions came and went without a rollout but rather an announcement 
• Debut will now take place this month in June - The hang-up is technical glitches. 
• Apple says it has been “delighted” by the response with “hundreds” of submissions from publishers worldwide. 
• There have been widespread complaints by podcasters since last April of problems with Apple Podcasts Connects. 
• In some cases, podcasts and episodes have gone missing, and in other cases podcasters have not been even able to sign-on to the system. 
• Apple is also making “additional enhancements” to its new Library design in the coming weeks. The new version of iOS allows users to mark all episodes as played, recover old episodes, and remove downloads.
• Apple announced last month that it has expanded its affiliate services program to allow podcasters to profit whenever they recruit a listener to sign up for a subscription. 
  • The program will give producers a 50% cut on the first paid month of every subscription membership. If the special link they send leads to the sale of a podcast subscription costing $10, the podcaster will earn a $5 commission.
• More details about Apple Podcast Subscriptions could come next week when Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference June 7.

VC Firm Declares Apple’s Podcasting a Hobby

• A new blog from LoupVentures titled “Podcasts Are Apple’s Hobby, Spotify’s Career” was an appropriate comparison of the two companies’ recent product announcements in the podcast space as Spotify has been pouring money into podcasts while Apple has been content to merely tread water.
• “Loup Ventures is a research-driven venture capital firm” and they felt that Podcasting had reached critical mass in America as an entertainment medium with “roughly 40% of Americans age 12 and older listening to podcasts monthly.”
• After helping mainstream podcasts through the iTunes store in 2005, Apple has done little with the medium since. Meanwhile, Spotify has aggressively pursued the podcast opportunity, investing hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire ad technology and exclusive content.
• Loups’s contention is that strategies for both companies make sense because “Apple’s future growth or profitability does not hinge on the success of its podcast marketplace” and “In order to achieve mid to high-30% gross margins, similar to Netflix, Spotify must add high-margin revenue, which is what makes podcasts attractive.”
• Apple podcasts appear to fall into the hobby category, primarily aimed at:
• Maintaining leadership in an important content category.
• Providing high-margin incremental Services revenue.
• Fails to onboard crea