Agreed, it seems like a natural progression. The barrier for creating a podcast is incredibly low, which is why initially there wasn't this type of middleman. But monetizing a podcast, especially to the point that you can quit your day job is much harder.
Re:Spotify's podcast bet went wrong
by lotsofpulp on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @02:20PM
(#34794518)
I did not even know one could pay Apple for podcasts until your post.
There’s already plenty of paid podcasts, what Apple and Spotify offer is frictionless payments. And for all the people complaining about Apples 30% cut on the App Store, there’s plenty of podcasters willing to give them exactly the same cut, as an alternate option to their own payment system.
The rise of paywalled podcasts was inevitable, and you can blame podcast creators just as much for wanting a piece of the $$$. But of course that makes as much sense as blaming actors for wanting to be paid for doing a movie, or blaming software developers for wanting to be paid to write software.
It's just capitalism doing what capitalism does. And I don't see a problem with rewarding popular podcast creators monetarily for their success, which Spotify (and Apple) created a new avenue for.
But remember, nobody's forcing individual podcasts to go from free to paid exclusive. The podcast creators are making that choice.