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10 Years Ago This Week: Apple Music and Podcasts forever apart?

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the week ending July 4, 2015.

Ten years ago this week the Apple Music streaming service launched and Apple celebrated 10 years of popular podcasting.

A Decade of Popular Podcasts


Apple Podcasting Page, June 29, 2005

Podcasts aren't new. Most of the content isn't so different from radio news and talk shows. Digital downloads of episodic content were available for some shows starting in the late 90s (or even before if you dive into the discussions on the Wikipedia article about the history of podcasting).

But Apple popularized the format. The popular iPod audio player combined with the popularity of blogging and easy-to-use audio production tools came together to encourage people to create their own shows. The term "podcast" is a combination of iPod and broadcast, underlining Apple's importance to the format.

And then in June 2005 Apple added podcasts to iTunes and built a directory of podcasts in the Apple Music Store. They also promoted podcast creation in the Garage Band audio editing software.

Podcasts exploded in popularity for listeners and creators. Apple marks that as the birth of podcasts.

But in 2015 the 10-year anniversary of podcasts was overshadowed by music. 

The launch of Apple Music


On June 30, 2015 Apple Music launched.

Instead of purchasing individual songs, a subscription covered all the music streams you would want to listen to. But you wouldn't own any of it. 

It had human-curated playlists and "radio stations" with DJs selecting tunes.

And it even included a sort of social network. Apple Music Connect let music artists share lyrics, photos, and videos which fans could comment on. 

It would compete with other music streaming services like Spotify, which was already popular, and YouTube Music, which would launch later in 2015.

It did not then (and does not now) include podcasts, which would continue to be managed by the separate Apple Podcasts app and iTunes.

The View from 2025


A decade on, Apple Music and Apple Podcasts are still going strong, in part because they are well integrated into the Apple ecosystem.

To celebrate 10 years of Apple Music they are opening a new state-of-the-art studio space in Los Angeles, "a creative home for the next decade of music."

But while Apple is celebrating 20 years of podcasting, listeners are turning elsewhere. Currently YouTube and Spotify are where most US users listen to podcasts. 

And Spotify has the most paid music streaming subscribers by far, with YouTube Music gaining on Apple Music's subscriber base.

In 2023 Apple allowed users to connect their Apple Music subscription to Apple Podcasts, opening up access to premium audio content.

Perhaps Apple should consider combining podcasts with Apple Music, making it more like Spotify and YouTube where both audio and video podcasts, plus streaming music, are available. 

References

Apple Podcasts 

Apple Newsroom, 28 June 2005: Apple Takes Podcasting Mainstream

Apple Podcasts for Creators, 28 June 2025 (Internet Archive)

Apple Podcasts, 28 June 2025: 20 Years, 20 Podcasts We Love

Apple Music 

Apple Music, 1 July 2015 (Internet Archive)

Apple Music, 30 June 2025 (Internet Archive)

Apple Newsroom, 8 June 2025: Introducing Apple Music — All The Ways You Love Music. All in One Place.

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