Apple made a giant announcement yesterday: they're empowering podcasters to charge subscriptions.

They raved about why this is awesome news for podcasters.

It's actually terrible precedent and significantly hampers podcasters' ability to grow their businesses.

Here's why:

1/ Apple has close to zero incentive to do right by podcasters, and their initial terms demonstrate this.

- The transaction fee is 30% (2-3x competitive products)
- Podcasters get no data on their subscribers

2/ The fact that podcasters get no subscriber data is more worrying than the steep take rate.

I know something about this because I built and sold @glowdotfm, a platform that empowers podcasters to sell subscriptions.

3/ One reason podcasting has stayed so small for so long is because Apple Podcasts has made it impossible for podcasters to understand their listeners.

For context, podcast advertising is *still* a sub-billion dollar market.

1/3 of Americans listen to podcasts regularly.

4/ Without direct-listener relationships, subscriptions will remain a small market, too.

Apple gives podcasters no way to:
- Super-serve their subscribers (upsell)
- Learn more about them (customer analytics)
- Retain them (churn management)

5/ These are *basic* subscription management functions, and Apple is giving podcasters no way to perform them.

On the other hand, Apple will have this data & can use it for its own advantage - for example, to identify high-value content targets for possible M&A.

6/ It's the antithesis of the spirit of the creator economy.

Unfortunately, podcasters have little power to push back. I hope Apple reconsiders