Apple Podcasts Update Enables Annual Subscriptions
Apple this week unveiled a host of fresh podcast tools for managing storage across devices, enabling annual subscriptions, and allowing creators to more easily distribute content through third-party providers.
With the release of iOS 15.5, iPadOS 15.5, and macOS 12.4, podcasters can now present annual subscription plans(Opens in a new window) alongside monthly offerings through the new plan picker, which appears when listeners tap "Subscribe" or "Try Free" on a show or channel with a subscription option. Annual plans are selected by default.
To make the move from monthly to annual subscription, open the Apple Podcasts app and navigate to Listen Now > Account > Manage Subscriptions, then choose your preferred program and upgrade to a 12-month plan. Changes can be made on a per-podcast basis. The picker also displays how much listeners can save with an annual subscription (if lower than the monthly alternative).
While you're at it, check out Apple's new automatic download preferences, available through your iDevice Settings app. Open the Podcasts tab and tap Automatically Download to choose how many episodes are saved for offline streaming: a certain number per show, all recent episodes, all new episodes, or none. Customize individual shows by tapping "..." on a program page, opening the Settings, and selecting a preference from Automatically Downloaded.
Users will be prompted to remove automatically downloaded episodes that don't meet the newly selected criteria; those that were manually downloaded or saved will not be removed, though the app does recommend removing old downloads to free up storage space.
Apple also introduced a new feature for podcast creators: Delegated Delivery(Opens in a new window) aims to save
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