Following Apple’s announcement of a subscription-based Podcast service, The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify will also launch a podcast subscription service as soon as next week.

While Apple will be charging 30% fees from creators for publishing paid podcasts on the platform, Spotify won’t be collecting any such fees. It will allow creators to offer paid podcasts on its platform for free. From the second year, Apple reduces this fee to 15%. Apple also charges creators $19.99 per year for its Podcasters Program.

Spotify will be routing users to its website when they try to purchase or subscribe to a podcast via its iOS app. This way, the company will avoid paying Apple any fees for in-app transactions.

Spotify has heavily focused on podcasts in recent times. The service now has over 2.2 million podcasts on its platform, up from 450,000 in 2019. It is also on track to overtake the podcast listenership of Apple Podcasts in the US. Apple dominated the podcasts market at one point in time, but it has done very little for the medium and creators. Unsurprisingly, the market share of Apple Podcasts has gone down from 34% in 2018 to 24% in 2021.

One major issue with Apple’s Podcasts is that it is only available for users who own an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. While there are over a billion iOS devices worldwide, this still limits the reach of Apple Podcasts. In comparison, Spotify is available across all major platforms. It is also the world’s most popular music streaming service with over 155 million subscribers, which means podcasts on Spotify will get higher exposure than Apple Podcasts.

Do you listen to podcasts? If so, what is your preferred platform? Drop a comment and let us know!