Apple announced a new feature for podcast publishers called Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery. It enables podcast owners to place free and/or subscription podcasts onto the platform in an operation which significantly streamlines the current process. Delegated Delivery (which sounds to us like some kind of diplomatic envoy) will be launched in the fall.
An Apple spokesperson told us, “There are two aspects to this new feature. The first and most important is the ability for creators to publish premium episodes, and submit new premium shows, using Apple Podcasts Subscriptions through their hosting provider.”
That is a significant relief to the effort currently faced by podcasters — and especially podcast networks — in the podcast subscription business. Any feature which reduces the number of dashboards a publisher must master is good news. In a recent episode of the RAIN Podcast Business Lunch, National Public Media COO Bryan Moffett told us that for an operation at scale, the separate submission process (in addition to distinct production tasks for subscription episodes) is a significant operational load.
In addition, Delegated Delivery will be a new way to deliver non-subscription shows, easing a process which is currently (one might argue) more difficult than at competing podcast players. When we offered this perspective to the Apple representative, we received agreement and defense. “Yes, this feature makes it easier for creators and hosting providers to submit shows, but I wouldn’t say that’s a uniquely complicated process today. There are a few steps involved […] and those exist primarily to keep spam and frauds out.
Again — not launched yet, but Delegated Dashboards already has several launch partners:
- Acast
- ART19
- Blubrry
- Buzzsprout
- Libsyn
- Omny Studio
- RSS.com
.