New York (AFP)
Apple will launch its first original podcasts, including a daily newsletter, a small revolution for the Cupertino group which has only played a passive role in the podcast world with its Apple Podcast platform.
The new program is called Apple News Today and is based on the Apple News app, which offers articles from newspapers, magazines and news sites, Apple said in a statement on Wednesday.
Each bulletin will include the main news of the day as discussed in the articles posted on the application, all presented by two journalists from Apple News.
The first edition, put online Wednesday, lasts nine minutes, and the average length should be between 7 and 8 minutes, the group told AFP.
Apple News Today, which will launch a daily podcast five days a week around 7:00 a.m. (11:00 GMT) New York time, will be available for free, as will the app for iPhone users.
The apple brand has also launched Apple News + Audio Stories, podcasts which will each be devoted to a feature article published on Apple News +, the paid version of Apple News ($ 9.99 per month).
Each episode, generally lasting between 15 and 45 minutes, will involve professional actors to adapt the narration to the audio format. Apple plans to offer about 20 a week.
These formats are reminiscent of "The Daily", the information podcast launched in early 2017 by the New York Times and which has become one of the most downloaded in the world.
According to the group, Apple News, which is available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, has more than 125 million monthly active users.
These audio programs, which are produced entirely by Apple without an external partner, are a first step in the production of original content in the form of podcasts for the computer giant.
If Apple was already essential in the podcast world, it owed it to its Apple podcast platform, the first global destination for lovers of this format before Spotify takes the lead this year.
But the group had so far not sought to monetize the traffic of its platform or to offer original content.
Apple is taking small steps, via Apple News, and organically, that is to say without acquisition, unlike Spotify, which spent more than $ 600 million between early 2019 and May 2020.
© 2020 AFP