Apple Podcasts Wikipedia

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 28, 2025, 3:02 AM

Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and launched its first standalone mobile app in 2012. The app was later pre-installed with iOS beginning October 2014. The Apple Podcasts directory features more than two million shows.[1] Apple Podcasts is available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, CarPlay, visionOS, Microsoft Windows operating systems, web browsers, and on Amazon Alexa devices. Apple was an early promoter of podcasts (the term is a portmanteau of Apple's iPod music player and "broadcast"),[2] and added playback functionality to iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and built a directory...

Apple Podcasts had an estimated 28 million American monthly listeners and 23.8% market share in March 2021, the first month it fell behind Spotify Podcasts as the top podcasting platform in the United States. This was a decrease from Apple's 34% market share in 2018.[7] In 2025 it was reported that Apple Podcasts had regained market share and had a 37.4% market share in the U.S. based on views and downloads of the top 250 podcasts in the U.S. This placed it ahead of Youtube (23.2%) and Spotify (15.2%) with all three combined having a 75.8% market share. Though it was also noted that Apple Podcasts Auto-downloads by default.[8]

A standalone Apple Podcasts app was announced at the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of iOS 6. Apple released the app early on the App Store on June 26, 2012. It adds a new "stations" feature for discovering new podcasts.[9] It is a standard app on CarPlay. A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet.[1][2][3] Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device... Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, but some distribute in video, either as primary content included in the feed, or as an external supplement to audio;[4] popularised in recent years by video platform YouTube.[4]... A podcast series usually features one or more recurring hosts engaged in a discussion about a particular topic or current event.

Discussion and content within a podcast can range from carefully scripted to completely improvised. Podcasts combine elaborate and artistic sound production with thematic concerns ranging from scientific research to slice-of-life journalism. Many podcast series provide an associated website or page with links and show notes, guest biographies, transcripts, additional resources, commentary, and occasionally a community forum dedicated to discussing the show's content. The cost to the consumer is low, and many podcasts are free to download. Some podcasts are underwritten by corporations or sponsored, with the inclusion of commercial advertisements. In other cases, a podcast could be a business venture supported by some combination of a paid subscription model, advertising or product delivered after sale.

Because podcast content is often free, podcasting is often classified as a disruptive medium, adverse to the maintenance of traditional revenue models. Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio or video files using RSS feeds to the devices of subscribed users. A podcaster normally buys this service from a podcast hosting company such as SoundCloud or Libsyn. Hosting companies then distribute these media files to podcast directories and streaming services, such as Apple and Spotify, which users can listen to on their smartphones or digital music and multimedia players. As of June 2024[update], there are at least 3,369,942 podcasts and 199,483,500 episodes.[6] Explore an incredibly diverse collection of entertaining and informative podcasts.

Dive deep into what interests you most, from insightful interviews to groundbreaking series. And enjoy it all on a platform designed for listeners and creators. Millions of podcasts on topics for everyone. Personalized discovery with easy ways to search. Powerful playback controls to customize your listening. Subscriptions that deliver more from your favorite shows.

Podcasts, previously known as "audioblogs", have roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband Internet access and portable digital audio playback devices such as the iPod, podcasting began to catch hold in late 2004.[1] Today there are more than 115,000 English-language podcasts available... The Illusion of Independent Radio is a Russian samizdat "radio program" created in 1989 in Rostov-on-Don and distributed on magnetic tape and cassettes. It was the first Soviet Russian prototype of the media phenomenon that was widely developed in the 2000s as podcasting.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Before the advent of the internet, in the 1980s, RCS (Radio Computing Services), provided music and talk-related software to radio stations in a digital format. Before online music digital distribution, the MIDI format as well as the Mbone, Multicast Network was used to distribute audio and video files.

The MBone was a multicast network over the Internet used primarily by educational and research institutes, but there were audio talk programs.[9] Many other jukeboxes and websites in the mid-1990s provided a system for sorting and selecting music or audio files, talk, segue announcements of different digital formats. There were a few websites that provided audio subscription services. In 1993, the early days of Internet radio, Carl Malamud launched Internet Talk Radio which was the "first computer-radio talk show, each week interviewing a computer expert".[10][11] It was distributed "as audio files that... Some websites allowed downloadable audio shows, such as the comedy show The Dan & Scott Show, available on AOL.com from 1996. Additionally, in 1998, Radio Usach,[14] radio station from the University of Santiago, Chile, explored the option to broadcast online and on demand streaming talk shows.[15] However, the development of downloaded music did not reach...

Independent of the development of podcasting via RSS, a portable player and music download system had been developed at Compaq Research as early as 1999 or 2000. Called PocketDJ, it would have been launched as a service for the Personal Jukebox or a successor, the first hard-disk based MP3-player. This document is available under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 KR. (except for some documents and illustrations where licenses are specified)The copyright of the contributed document belongs to each contributor, and each contributor owns the copyright of the part they contribute. Apple Podcasts is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts.

Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and launched its first standalone mobile app in 2012. The app was later pre-installed with iOS beginning October 2014. The Apple Podcasts directory features more than two million shows. Apple Podcasts is available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, CarPlay, visionOS, Microsoft Windows operating systems, web browsers, and on Amazon Alexa devices. Wikipedia Apple Podcasts is the world’s premier destination for podcast discovery and listening.

It provides the best experience for listeners to explore millions of shows on every imaginable topic and to directly support the creators behind them. For fans looking to deepen their connection with their favorite podcasts, Apple Podcasts also offers thousands of premium subscriptions with benefits like exclusive content and ad-free listening. The entire library is available for free, and is seamlessly integrated across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay, and on the web at https://podcasts.apple.com. Data credits: Google Maps, Podnews newsletter, Wikipedia

Apple Podcasts Wikipedia

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