Apple is making it easier to distribute subscription podcasts

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Apple is making it easier for people to subscribe to shows. Premium shows will be automatically uploaded to the Apple Podcasts app on select distribution platforms, instead of having to publish it episode by episode through Apple's platform.

Those who offer subscription shows through the Apple program need to publish them through Apple. The company says that it has a new system that will allow creators to skip the extra step and publish shows on Apple directly from their dashboard. The initial group of partner hosts include Acast and Libsyn. This fall, the feature is supposed to launch.

The new distribution feature will apply to free shows. The Apple Podcasters Program costs $19.99 per year, even with the new distribution system.

The new feature is not intended to compete with the Anchor feature of the streaming service. If the company chose to do so, he said, Anchor and Megaphone could become Delegated Delivery partners. The company did not respond to the question of whether it would.

Supercast, glow.fm, and Apple partner Acast are some of the partner hosts that have streamlined publishing for subscription shows through its Open Access program. Vox Media is a partner in the Open Access program.

A new feature was announced by Apple. Users will be able to specify how many episodes they want to keep downloaded in the app for offline listening, with options like five latest episodes or those published in the magazine. The new downloads configuration could potentially solve a big annoyance for heavy podcast listeners who can quickly rack up downloads that eat their device's storage.