iTunes hosts over 550,000 active podcasts, surpasses 50 billion episode downloads

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited June 2018
iTunes now has over 550,000 active podcasts, with 18.5 million individual episodes available, Apple announced on Tuesday.

Hello to Jason Isaacs


Some 25,000 shows have been added since April alone, the company told TechCrunch. More than 50 billion episodes have been streamed or downloaded since iTunes first began hosting podcasts in 2005, of which 13.7 billion were tracked in 2017. That's up from 10 billion in 2016.

Stuff You Should Know, meanwhile, has become the first podcast to break 500 million plays.

Podcasts have been a staple of Apple platforms for many years, and indeed take their name from the iPod, where they initially solved the problem of putting radio-like content on a device without FM or internet access.

The company also used Tuesday to preview tougher requirements for its Podcast Analytics tool, launched in December. At an unspecified point in the future, podcasters using the tool will be required to have cover art and include some specific forms of metadata, such as updates.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Podcasts needs a stand alone app on Mac OS. 
    jony0
  • Reply 2 of 8
    crawdad62crawdad62 Posts: 100member
    And you still can’t play Podcasts natively on Apple Watch. Unbelievable.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    claire1claire1 Posts: 510unconfirmed, member
    .... and Apple doesn't care.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    crawdad62 said:
    And you still can’t play Podcasts natively on Apple Watch. Unbelievable.
    With watchOS 5 , you will be able to.
    edited June 2018
  • Reply 5 of 8
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,276member
    crawdad62 said:
    And you still can’t play Podcasts natively on Apple Watch. Unbelievable.

    Coming in the next watchOS.
    SpamSandwichwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 8
    christopher126christopher126 Posts: 4,366member
    Amazing! 
  • Reply 7 of 8
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Love podcasts. Have a curated bunch of them that has replaced a lot of radio listening and TV watching. They’re better in all respects, even with the Casper mattresses, Harry’s razors and IT Pros ads.
    edited June 2018
  • Reply 8 of 8
    It's a shame that the user ergonomics of Podcast consumption on iOS have fallen off a cliff. I used to use podcasts as entertainment while working out, etc, but since it's basically impossible to select a podcast and have the episodes automatically play in chronological order from oldest to newest (I know, you can use the "play next/play later" thing to make a playlist, but WHAT A WASTE OF TIME) I've stopped listening. This is a case where I've walked away from good content because Apple has inexplicably made it impossible consume it in a sane fashion. Yeah, I know, use Stitcher...so I can pay for the privilege of accessing free content.
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