Poll: Do you think Podcasts+ is the next service coming to Apple One?

It’s been two years since Apple held its Services event to introduce Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and Apple Card. Last September, the company announced the Apple One subscription, where you can bundle services and pay less for them.

With iOS 14.5 destined to arrive rather sooner than later, the company could be planning another addition to the One subscription: Podcasts+, here’s why:

In the first beta of iOS 14.5 back in February, 9to5Mac reported the Apple Podcasts application had undergone a handful of small user interface tweaks. On later betas, Apple made other changes:

When you download iOS 14.5 beta 4, you will notice a new welcome page featuring “New Show Pages,” “Follow Shows,” and “Save Episodes.” Here, Apple continues to refine the language surrounding subscribing to and following shows. 

After changing the “subscribe” button to a new “follow” button in the Podcasts app, Apple has now stopped saying that all the content available is free.

With that in mind, the company could be preparing to launch a podcasts subscription for the first time. Before Apple introduced TV+, it announced a handful of original shows for Apple Music, such as Planet of the Apps.

With Apple highlighting Apple Originals in its Podcasts app like For All Mankind: Official Podcast and the introduction of the TV show Calls, an audio-only production, this could easily be the first step for a Podcasts+ subscription on Apple One.

While Spotify is gathering music and podcasts in one place, as well as testing a subscription tier to listen for audio shows, it would make sense if Apple followed the same path, while also including the Podcasts+ in the base tier of Apple One.

Without charging more from users, the company could introduce another service, making the bundle even more appealing. Starting from $14.95 per month, the Apple One Individual subscription would have Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, 50GB of iCloud storage, and Podcasts+.

As for its standalone price, Apple could give users who bought an Apple product – even AirPods – a year for free on Podcasts+ or charge at a maximum of $4.99 per month.

Do you think Apple could launch Podcasts+? Would you be willing to pay for premium shows?

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