Apple Podcasts User Guide
Podcasts are free audio shows that you can stream and play on your Mac. You can listen to individual episodes, or you can subscribe to a show so that new episodes are automatically downloaded as they become available.
Your podcast subscriptions, stations, and current play position sync to the Podcasts app on all your devices when you sign in with the same Apple ID. Refer to See your podcasts on all your devices.
Mar 31, 2020 Click PODCASTS. Browse featured podcast episodes, or scroll down to browse by category. Hover over the cover art and click the play button to start listening, or click the podcast title to see more episodes. Click SAVE TO YOUR LIBRARY on the podcast page to save. Find podcasts you save in Your Library, in the PODCASTS tab.
Listen to an episode
In the Podcasts app on your Mac, click Listen Now (or any item) in the sidebar.
Hold the pointer over the show or episode you want to play, then click the Play button .
When the episode plays, you see the playback controls at the top of the Podcasts window.
Do any of the following with the playback controls: Best hardware monitoring software mac.
Skip ahead or skip back within the episode: Drag the progress handle right (to skip ahead) or left (to skip back), or use the Touch Bar.
You can also use the Skip Back button to go back (in 15-second increments) and the Skip Forward button to skip ahead (in 30-second increments) in the episode.
Tip: You can customize the amount of time an episode goes back or skips ahead. See Change Playback preferences.
Pause the episode: Click the Pause button (or use the Touch Bar).
Click the Play button to resume playback (or use the Touch Bar).
Change the playback speed: Choose Controls > Playback Speed, then choose a speed.
Change the audio output: Click the AirPlay button to choose which speakers to use to listen to the podcast.
Manage the episode (for example, copy the link, share the episode, or go to the Show page): Hold the pointer over the episode playing, click the More button , then choose an option.
Note: If you added the episode to the library, you can do even more to manage the episode—for example, add it to the Playing Next list or save it. See Choose episode settings.
Read the episode description: Click the Episode Notes button .
You can also press the Space bar to play, pause, and resume playing a show (or use the Touch Bar).
Ask Siri. Say something like:
“Forward 15 seconds.”
“Continue playing the last podcast.”
Learn more about Siri.
Use the Playing Next list
While listening to podcasts, you can use the Playing Next list to view and change which episodes (or chapters within an episode) play next.
In the Podcasts app on your Mac, click any option in the sidebar.
Hold the pointer over a show or episode, click the More button , then choose Play Next or Play Later.
The show or episode is added to the top of the Playing Next list (if you choose Play Next) or the bottom of the list (if you choose Play Later).
Click in the top-right corner of the Podcasts window, then do any of the following:
Play an episode (or chapter within an episode) in the list: Click the episode or chapter.
Note: Some podcasts include chapters within an episode, which allow you to jump quickly to a specific part of the episode.
Change the order of episodes you manually added to the list: Drag episodes with the Reorder button .
The Playing Next list appears onscreen until you click again to close it.
To control other aspects of playback, including whether to continue playing the next episode or what action is taken when you use headphone controls, see Change Playback preferences.
We’ve covered Spotify’s move into podcasting multiple times over the past year. Spotify has spent millions of dollars to acquire content and they’ve built out an entire portal for shows to manage their content and view statistics. It’s clear that they are here to stay. I’ve even noticed non-technology focused advertising will now say, “Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.” Side note: I hate when someone says “Find our show on iTunes” as that helps almost no one. The data I hear is that across the industry is that Spotify makes up 10% of the market now while Apple is still at 60%. Apple’s market share is likely to keep shrinking as other players grow, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Today, I want to explain why we aren’t headed towards a Spotify vs Apple Podcasts war.
Spotify and Apple certainly have no love lost when it comes to music. The anti-trust battles are looming, and I am sure both companies want to avoid prolonged legal conflicts. In podcasting, because the industry is so young, Spotify’s focus is a good thing for the industry (especially for creators). While Apple Podcasts is installed on every iOS and macOS (running Catalina) device, Spotify is approaching 200 million free users, and 125 million paid users. As they begin to promote podcasting heavily, that will grow the industry. As someone who loves podcasting, I want new people to discover podcasts. Anyone that has an Android phone, Chromebook, macOS, iPhone, iPad, Windows PC, etc. can now listen to podcasts on Spotify. While I love Apple Podcasts, and how much they promote the industry, I know that Spotify can help reach people Apple can’t.
I know there was a lot of concern after Spotify purchased Gimlet that they would move away from the RSS standard for podcasting. After seeing how they’ve built out their creator portal, it’s clear they still believe in the open market. While they aren’t using Apple’s API to import their shows, they have built out a way for artists to submit their show based on RSS and manage it. Their portal is very similar to Google’s podcasting portal. Once you submit your show to Spotify, there is nothing else you have to do.
App experience
To be perfectly honest, I don’t love the overall experience of the podcast section of Spotify. It’s not that it’s unusable, but imagine if Apple Podcasts was stuck inside of Apple Music? It’s going to be hard for Spotify to continue to build out the platform while keeping an excellent music and podcast experience. I understand why they built it into their main app as that is part of their ability to increase market share. If users were required to download a separate app, they likely would be at a fraction of the same market share. I am going to be way more critical of the experience than your average person, though. I subscribe to 40+ shows, so I am not the ideal person for Spotify Podcasts. If I am guessing, Spotify is seeing an average subscription per user at five shows. It’s perfect for that.
Wrap-up on Spotify vs. Apple Podcasts
Spotify On Mac
If you love podcasting, you should be excited about Spotify’s focus. It’ll bring in new listeners, grow the overall market, bring in new advertisers, and help sustain amazing content going forward. For this industry to grow as we all want it to, we need more people listening to more shows. With Apple, Google, and Spotify all basing 99% of their directory on the open RSS standard, we have preserved the free market. While it remains to be seen how Apple and Spotify distribute exclusive content, as long as the next “Serial” is available wherever you get your podcasts, the industry is in a good place going forward. In the period from 2004 to 2019, the podcast industry has gotten the attention of major players in technology. All that’s left is for Amazon to build out Amazon Podcasts…
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