What are Apple’s audiobook guidelines, anyway?

This is the free weekly version of Hot Pod, The Verge’s e-newsletter about podcasting and the audio trade. You can enroll right here.

Hello, whats up, whats up. I hope you’re all prepared for a busy, Amazon-packed situation. Because there’s quite a bit of Amazon information to go round at this time. First: Amazon and the Apple App Store. Second: Amazon Prime and Amazon Music. Third: Amazon Amp. And fourth: …some stats about discuss radio from NPR, as somewhat breather.

A fast be aware for Insiders: we aren’t planning points for Thursday and Friday this week whereas we’re out in LA for Hot Pod Summit. We’re actually wanting ahead to the occasion and bringing again some takeaways for all of you.

What are Apple’s audiobook guidelines, anyway?

Say you wish to supply audiobooks by an iPhone app. You’ve bought a number of choices:

1. You can use Apple’s in-app buy system, giving Apple a 30 p.c minimize on each audiobook bought. That means letting Apple eat into your margins or marking your costs up and making them much less aggressive with, say, Apple Books.
2. You can supply a subscription inside your app utilizing Apple’s in-app buy system. This will scale back the payment to fifteen p.c after one yr. Audible, for instance, raises the month-to-month payment for its premium tier by $1 monthly on iOS to compensate for this.
3. You can supply a subscription outdoors your app. This yr, Apple began granting some exceptions to permit apps to share data with customers on find out how to go about signing up for a brand new account. So an app can theoretically hyperlink out to a signup web page on the net. (Netflix does this; Spotify doesn’t.)
4. You can supply nothing in your app. Users can purchase audiobooks on the net; then, they’ll seem within the app as soon as they’re bought. You can’t inform customers about find out how to purchase them, although. This is what Libro.fm does, as an example.

But critically, you can not simply promote the audiobook instantly utilizing the cost processor of your alternative. Nor, as Spotify discovered final week, are you able to embrace a button in your app that emails your buyer a hyperlink to purchase the guide on the net. I don’t personally assume these are good guidelines, however they’re Apple’s guidelines, and builders are caught with them.

Or, not less than, they normally are. A developer DMed me this week after recognizing that Amazon appears to have the ability to pull off the identical “email the customer” tactic that Apple simply prohibited Spotify from utilizing. Open up Amazon’s app, signal into your Amazon account, after which pull up an audiobook. A giant yellow “I Want This Book” button seems. Tap it, and also you’ll obtain an e-mail explaining that you just want to join an Audible membership to amass the guide and hear.

I’m not penning this to name out Amazon for skirting Apple’s guidelines — I’m penning this as a result of… properly, what even are Apple’s guidelines? Apple accredited Spotify’s e-mail method, then later retracted the approval and mentioned the app wanted to alter. Has the corporate additionally missed a rule-breaking habits from one of many largest e-commerce firms on the planet? Or is there some type of wiggle-room exception right here as a result of Audible is a subscription service? I reached out to Apple for readability on its guidelines however didn’t obtain a response. Amazon didn’t reply by press time, both.

Spotify doesn’t know why Amazon’s system will get a move, both. “Apple has given us no such guidance,” Adam Grossberg, a Spotify spokesperson, informed Hot Pod. “It’s a very good question and one that suggests Apple is not fairly applying its rules.”

If I needed to take a wager, I’d guess that Apple’s guidelines will ultimately nudge Spotify to launch a subscription choice for its audiobooks. Spotify very particularly tried the a la carte method as a technique to differentiate itself from Audible. But Apple’s system actually preferences subscriptions: in-app subscriptions have a decrease transaction payment, and subscription content material apps get the choice to hyperlink out to their web site for signup and keep away from the charges altogether. I don’t know that subscriptions are the very best mannequin for audiobooks, however they certain appear to be the one Apple desires.

Amazon goes huge on ad-free podcasts

This seems like the final word tackle “what’s more important: subscriptions or ads?”

Amazon has determined to amp up the audio choices of its Prime subscription in an enormous means. Prime subscribers now get entry to Amazon Music’s full catalog of songs, with the one — admittedly main — caveat being that they must hearken to every little thing on shuffle.

Prime members are additionally getting a bunch of podcasting perks. Wondery exhibits and Amazon exclusives are going ad-free for Prime subscribers who hear by Amazon Music. Amazon additionally partnered with a bunch of high podcast producers, together with CNN, NPR, ESPN, and The New York Times, to convey a few of their exhibits to the service ad-free as properly.

I discover this significantly fascinating as a result of up till at this time, roughly, Amazon’s podcast technique has been to deal with advert gross sales. Just have a look at its SmartLess deal: the corporate didn’t lock the present down as an Amazon unique and power folks to pay for Prime to tune in; it stored distribution as vast as it could actually in order that Amazon can promote advertisements in opposition to its massive and profitable viewers. Amazon has made a bunch of offers like this! But now…

“The biggest thing [consumers] don’t like about podcasts is all the ads,” Amazon Music head Steve Boom mentioned on Decoder this morning. So Amazon has determined to eliminate them.

It’s an enchanting wager. Amazon’s audio providing is pretty compelling if you happen to examine it to Spotify’s free tier — as my colleague David Pierce writes, “As free services go, though, Amazon Music is now essentially Spotify minus the ads for anyone already paying for Prime.” But critically… Amazon Music will not be free, precisely. It is $139 per yr and simply occurs to return with a bunch of different advantages. And not like the ad-forward method, this tactic requires listeners to actively select Amazon’s platform.

I think Amazon Music’s largest hurdle proper now could be merely consciousness. Prime remains to be finest generally known as the “free shipping” subscription with a bunch of different perks inbuilt. Amazon’s content material divisions now appear to be making an attempt to carry their very own in that partnership: Prime Video is pulling its weight with main titles like Rings of Power, and at this time’s announcement exhibits Amazon Music making an attempt to comply with go well with, too.

There’s one different huge podcast replace right here: a characteristic known as “podcast previews” in Amazon Music that presents quick, curated clips from exhibits that listeners can swipe between. The clips are all editorially curated by Amazon Music editors, Rebecca Silverstein, an Amazon spokesperson, informed Hot Pod. “We are starting with a small set of select partners whom expressed interest in participating, and would like to grow the number of podcasts included as part of this feature over time.” It’s a neat tackle discovery and one thing different audio streamers must be excited about, too.

Layoffs at Amazon’s stay audio crew

Amazon has minimize round half of its stay audio crew — “roughly 150 people” — according to Insider. It’s an inauspicious signal for the way forward for Amp, which solely launched again in March.

It was simply two months in the past that Amazon launched a creator fund to encourage folks to make use of the stay audio service. At the time, I used to be additionally seeing advertisements for Amp showing everywhere in the New York City subway, in what learn to me as a reasonably shocking push on condition that stay audio has been flagging all yr.

Amazon says Amp isn’t going anyplace, although. The firm informed Insider that it’s consolidating groups to “focus on the growth and scaling of Amp.” That mentioned, dropping half of your crew typically limits your means to do such issues!

Insider factors out that the layoffs come after a weak earnings report from Amazon, after which the corporate’s CFO mentioned headcount could be a goal for price slicing. With how a lot hassle Clubhouse appears to be having, I’m not satisfied Amp has every little thing it must succeed.

Spoken phrase audio is booming

Okay, no shock right here if you happen to’re studying this article, however: NPR and Edison Research’s Spoken Word Audio Report got here out final week, and so they discovered that spoken phrase audio has been rising in an enormous means. 131 million folks aged 13-plus within the US now hearken to spoken phrase audio every day, up from 105 million in 2014, in response to the report. 

There are promising indicators this isn’t only a fad, both. Younger listeners — Gen Z — are spending a couple of fifth of their audio time on spoken phrase, up from lower than a tenth near a decade in the past.

Listeners are more and more tuning in on cellular, in response to the report, now hitting a 3rd of all listeners. But critically, radio nonetheless reigns supreme as a format, with practically half of all listening taking place on AM/FM, in comparison with one-fifth on podcasts.

Hot Pod Summit is occurring this week

We’re very excited to see a bunch of you out in Los Angeles in simply two days. Hot Pod Summit LA is occurring on Thursday, and we’ve bought a full day of thrilling conversations lined up. My colleague Ariel Shapiro, Hot Pod’s lead author, and our good friend Nick Quah, Hot Pod’s founder and the writer of 1.5x Speed at Vulture, might be on the town to sit down down with high leaders within the podcasting house to speak about comedy, politics, IP possession, Hollywood variations, subscriptions, and a complete bunch extra.

Hot Pod Summit LA is sponsored by Amazon Music, Wondery, and AdsWizz, and it’s being held in partnership with work x work and KCRW. The occasion is occurring as a part of On Air LA Annex, being held November third–fifth. Tickets are nonetheless out there, and you’ll read about their full lineup over here.

Phew, that was a protracted one. We’ll see y’all subsequent week!