By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) shares slipped by almost 3% Wednesday as the battle for the booming podcast business heats up with rival Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) deciding to launch a paid subscription for its service.
At Tuesday’s Apple Spring Loaded event, the iPhone-maker unveiled new offerings under the service it pioneered.
Apple podcast subscriptions will let users pay to unlock new content and enjoy ad-free listening, CEO Tim Cook said.
Pricing for each subscription will be set by the creator and billed monthly, Apple noted in a press release.
Cook said the app would be enhanced and podcast users will get a better search functionality besides being able to access exclusive content by well-known names.
"Given that (Apple) basically originated podcasting, it would be tough to swallow to lose out to Spotify," Reuters quoted Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives as saying.
With its new service, Apple will face the challenge of convincing users to pay for podcasts "when there's a universe of it available for free," Reuters quoted Nick Quah as saying. Quah is the author of Hot Pod, an industry newsletter about the podcasting world.