What Would Happen If Apple Launched A Free Podcast Hosting Service?

So I'm heading home from the studio and I just had this bit of inspiration that I wanted to record. We'll make this a quick episode of podcast report. Yes, it's being recorded on my earpods. Fidelity is not the point of this episode. Concept is the point of this episode. Next week Apple is supposed to make some big announcements about their. The rumor is the big announcements are going to be about their media plans, their connected package, their competition with Netflix, that kind of thing. All sorts of stuff is coming back and forth in terms of what's going to be included, what isn't going to be included included, that type of thing. I don't want to make this a moment in time episode, but I have been thinking about what this means, Apple getting into the game and I think there's something really important about Apple getting in the game that we need to examine if we take a look historically in the past hosting companies, service providers were really big in the whole world of hosting web hosting. You know, when you had whatever icloud was before it was icloud ihome, I think it was you could host your website there. A lot of the Internet service providers gave you the ability to host a website. I think the cable companies and that kind of stuff do that now, but I think it just isn't that done that often. And with stuff like hostgator and that type of thing, it's ridiculous almost to do it. But there is no reason why Apple couldn't with a couple of clicks open up a podcast hosting platform inside of icloud. Think about this. They already give away free hosting and Spotify has jumped on board with as a competitor acquiring anchor which gives free hosting. Apple has the ability to host, they have the infrastructure, they have the product. I mean you could publish right from GarageBand or you can publish right from a podcast only app to an icloud hosting type of situation. They could give it away for free like they give it away now for free and then you could pay more for upgrades, that type of thing. So Apple has the ability to do that right now. Their biggest competitor inside of the marketplace is already doing that. And imagine having your icloud account connected to your hosting account connected to your itunes account. This makes tremendous sense. And the fact of the matter is Apple really wouldn't have to do much else anyway because what with Google even doing links directly from the itunes page and Overcast and all these other people grabbing from the Apple app, they could take the free hosting, they could take this and very quickly turn around a free hosting situation, which strategically can be very, very interesting for them. And what would that do to the podcasting space? Well, there are a lot of podcasters who, you know, argue that podcasting needs to be cheap. The, you know, or free. The anchor guys done this whole media campaign about the idea that why should we pay for podcast hosting, you know, using YouTube as the example, I would say, you know, you know, the problem with that situation is that YouTube is great for YouTube, but it's not necessarily great for everywhere else. I can't post my stuff for free at YouTube and do what I want to do with it. And of course, I can't post my stuff for free at anchor and do what I want to do with it either. There's really no way to post something for free and do what you want to do with it. So how would this affect this? There would be some who would want to go cheap and would want to go on their free account, and that would make sense, and I wouldn't necessarily blame them. There are those, though, and this is key, who would want that ease and they would go in that direction, and I wouldn't necessarily blame them. But what's interesting about podcasting, what's really powerful about podcasting, and what I want you to think about is the simple fact that when you host with a party that is not owned by the aggregator that is, you know, when you're on a Libsyn or when you're on a Blueberry, and when you're on someone who doesn't have their own index, there is every reason for that provider to make sure you work well with the other people. It is in Libsyn's best interest to make sure you work equally as well with Apple as it is Spotify, it is in Blueberry's interest that you work at least as well, you know, in the Android world as you do on Stitcher. Not necessarily the case with these, you know, podcast hosts that are connected to a single entity. So that's one thing to think about. And it's just. It's an interesting idea. I wanted to be the one to throw it out here. You know, who knows, Maybe Apple will make a big announcement on Monday and I'll be the one to say I claimed it here first. I think the deeper question, of course, is, okay, Paul, well, what. What would you do if this changed? Well, first of all, we don't know all the details, but if Apple were to do a traditional hosting situation, you know, and of course, obvious with icloud, I pay whatever I pay per month to get extra space because I've got my photo library and there are a bunch of stuff in there. I mean, Apple could let you podcast for free with the iCloud account. You could pay more to host more and store more and all that stuff. And it could be really, really interesting. What would happen? Would I move myself? Would I move my clients? No, not at this point. Could Apple bring out a deal killer that might change that? Sure. But I don't necessarily see that in the bank. And again, my clients, I. And you all do well for having a podcast that's available everywhere, a podcast that has every reason to sound as good on the competition as it does on the platform. And I think this is the thing that no entity is going to be able to provide. And again, it's not just Apple that does this. I mean, Spotify entered the game, they're playing with it, they've got this. Google could enter the game. You know, you get some free Google Drive from them. Apple could enter the game. You know, Microsoft could enter the game. A lot of people get into the game in the free podcasting space, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't know why my car was just beeping there for a second. That was kind of nerve wracking. Hope everything's okay. I'm sure it'll be okay. This podcast episode never gets published. We'll go from there. Um, it's really, really important. It's really, really key that your show be on someone who has every reason and every benefit to make sure that you sound as good as you possibly can everywhere. You need your show to be on someone who has no vested interest in you not being somewhere else. And that cost you a few bucks a month. You go from there now. Throw on things like dynamic ad insertion and that kind of stuff. You know, maybe these free hosts will never be even be able to provide, but I don't know. I think the industry should get ready for it. I think Libsyn should think about it because might not necessarily happen this Monday, but future Mondays. I think Blueberry needs to ponder it. I think simplecast needs to ponder it. Obviously any of these companies could be acquired, but I don't think it's going to happen. I think it's going to. I don't think the acquisition is going to happen. I think if somebody plays with this, it's going to happen pretty quickly. I think it'll happen pretty simply. And as with Anchor and the traditionally lower quality of podcasts that tend to be associated with them, I think a free hosting platform would be associated with them as well. You are not a low quality podcast. You are a podcast with a mission and a purpose, or else you wouldn't be listening this far. But I don't know. I'm going to predict that it's coming. I'm going to predict that there's going to be a little bit of chaos associated with it, but I predict that you, the listener, are going to do the right thing. Thank you so much for listening. Not even quite sure which episode this is, but thepodcastreport. Com, Facebook/twitter slash Instagram. If you want to interact, please subscribe, follow the show on whatever platform you follow or subscribe to shows on. This is Paul. We'll chat soon. Bye.