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Apple Podcasts is where podcasting got its name and its audience: when iTunes added a podcast directory in 2005, a hobbyist RSS format became a medium, and the iPod's "pod" stuck to it permanently. Two decades on, the app remains the medium's reference directory — its charts the industry's scoreboard.

Apple has kept podcasting's open substrate intact — any RSS feed, no exclusivity wars — while layering conveniences on top: a standalone app since 2012, paid channels and subscriptions since 2021, and automatic transcripts since 2024. Against Spotify's exclusive-shows strategy, Apple bet that podcasting stays open and ubiquitous; the medium largely agreed, and the app ships on every device from iPhone to HomePod.