Apple’s Podcast Subscriptions are ‘Screwed Up’ Says Creator

Image: Apple

“I make roughly half my income from the various shows that I host and produce,” said Dan Moren, popular podcast creator and one half of the duo behind tech publication Six Colors, in a blog post. This is why Moren is so frustrated that “new podcast episodes sometimes don’t show up” on Apple Podcasts.

The issue has affected hordes of creators like Moren, resulting in new episodes not being visible to listeners on the platform until 2-4 days after they’ve been uploaded. Considering that Apple has been at the forefront of podcast discovery for almost two decades now, that is bound to make podcast makers uneasy.

The first reports of this problem date back to May, and it wasn’t even fixed after Apple monetized the platform with the global launch of Podcasts Subscriptions on June 15.

Moren’s other professional half, Jason Snell, previously speculated that new podcast episodes may sometimes fail to become visible because of changes in Apple’s handling of podcasts and new episodes behind the scenes.

That may as well be the case, since the problem surfaced around the same time Podcasts Subscriptions, which came with a ton of back-end changes, were originally slated to launch before being delayed.

Of course, astute listeners could simply switch to an alternative platform like Overcast or Castro if they find new episodes of their favorite shows missing on Apple Podcasts. However, the fact remains that Apple’s platform commands the highest share of the market, so jumping ship to another platform is simply not an option for creators.

Moren also expressed his disappointment over Apple’s handling of the issue — the tech giant hasn’t even acknowledged its existence as of yet, let alone communicated how (or when) it plans to fix it.

In the meantime, this “reliability problem” continues to grow like a weed, damaging creators’ revenue, discover-ability, and listener-base, and more importantly for Apple, the iPhone manufacturer’s image and reputation as the podcast industry’s resident champion.